The Mummy Reborn
by Valkyrie Elysia
Summary: Slightly based on The Mummy. Mana is not happy when she has to go to Egypt for her brother's work. But when the excavation accidentally revives a dark entity that tried to destroy Egypt, Mana has to work with everyone(including her new crush) in order to seal this evil that wishes to destroy them in this life as he wanted to 3000 years ago.
1. An Unwilling Beginning

**V.E.: Now I know I said I wouldn't do any vaseshipping until I finish my Cinderella, but this just came to me when I wrote about **_**The Mummy**_** joke. This will be based a little bit on that movie, but don't expect an exact copy.**

**I do mean to finish the other one and I hope to get the next chapter up soon! I guess I just needed a break from it.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh and if I owned The Mummy, the third movie would be very different(it just doesn't work in China for me).**

* * *

_Egypt. The first great ancient civilization._

_Yet for all its splendor and greatness, it was bound to the fate of all nations and faded into the sand from which it came. Many stories whispered by the wind died away with the passing of this golden empire._

_But these are the very stories that should have never been forgotten._

_This is one such tale….._

_Long ago, a great pharaoh reigned with the golden power entrusted by the gods themselves. It was said that this great power could banish any threat to the kingdom and its people. _

_However, no one could see the threat that lay dormant in the hearts of men. One of the most trusted advisors grew resentful and bitter. He rebelled against the pharaoh he swore loyalty to and sought the powers of the Dark One, Zorc. He went so far as to take upon the power of a sacred beast that protected one of the pharoah's guardians._

_Darkness covered up any light and it seemed as if Egypt would perish. In that moment, the pharaoh offered his prayers to the gods to seal this evil. And he did receive an answer._

_Daughter of Ma'at and Thoth, the Goddess with No Name. She whose wisdom and power has no equal. She and the pharaoh banished Zorc to the regions of the Duat, his physical body sealed with a temple hidden to all, but at a great cost._

_The pharaoh lost his life, so untimely cut short. Though unable to bring him back to life, the Goddess promised the servants to the pharaoh a wish. _

_That he may live again and that they would find their king again. That not even death would separate them._

_For the time will come when this evil will rise again….._

"Mana."

Mana sighed and looked up from her book.

Not that the book was that interesting. It was about Egypt(like most things her brother got for her on his trips) and she was sick of Egypt. Sure to other people it may come off as mysterious and intriguing, but for her it was an annoying reminder of her brother. As a child, Mahad had educated her about his latest finds in researching Egypt, not understanding she didn't care. She lived, breathed, ate, and slept this stuff back then. It took so long to forget that that was the reason she bugged him so much. To get him to stop talking about it.

To her left, Mahad was looking at her questioningly. He was dressed for travel, comfortable but not too casual. Mana's friends had once told her they thought her brother was cute, but they didn't have to live with him. He couldn't talk to a girl outside of his family without stuttering like a fool and had no sense of humor.

"What is it brother dearest?"

Mahad sighed at Mana's tone, knowing very well she didn't mean it.

"Can't you try to be a little pleasant? I mean, most people I know would be ecstatic to go on a trip to Egypt."

Mana returned back to her book, in an effort to end the conversation.

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm not like most people you know, which are mostly archaeologists."

Mahad's face and tone was determined.

"I couldn't leave you alone for a couple of weeks. You'd burn down the apartment trying to make food for yourself. Plus, you'd have probably thrown a party and I'd come back to find the place looking like something out of a horror movie."

Mana rolled her eyes.

"I wouldn't have done that."

(She hadn't thought about a party. Good idea for next time though).

Mahad just looked at her concerned and somewhat sad.

"Look I know you're not happy…"

The look Mana gave him sent the impression, _What was your first clue Sherlock? _Mahad continued on, his voice also taking on a sad tone.

"Listen, when this is all over, I'll make it up to you."

Mana folded the book into her travel bag and did one last check on her cell phone before the plane took off.

"Unless you can turn back time, you can't."

Mahad felt a slight sting from those words and just gave up.

What did he expect? That traveling would put Mana in a different mood? He shook his head mentally. Well, not that he should have expected much. She had been like this ever since she had moved in with him.

Mana wasn't always like this. She used to be so annoying she got on his nerves. Like the time she locked him in a closet with a snake she borrowed from the biology room(knowing full well he HATED snakes). Or the time one of her contraptions had him looking like a king sized chicken. And let's not forget the time she stole his journal(NOT A DIARY!) and read it out to the whole school on the intercom. That was a bad time in his already miserable high school career.

But then the accident happened.

When Mahad got a call in the middle of the night sometime after started his job at the museum, he knew something was wrong. Mana's crying furthered that feeling. He couldn't process the words that came out of her mouth. His parents had gotten into an accident and had not made it.

He still couldn't process it as he stood next to Mana at the funeral. He couldn't walk in the old house without expecting to see his mom in her sewing room puzzling over some new design or his dad smiling as he was making dinner. Mana, at least, had her friends to console her, but Mahad had no close friends.

After the funeral, Mahad knew he had to take care of his sister. Dad was an only child whose parents had died early on and Mom's only living family member was her half-brother which was barely on speaking terms with her.

In a way, he probably did deserve some of her scorn. He had uprooted her from the only life she had ever known with all her friends to move her to a different city and school where she knew no one except him.

He just expected her to prank him to humiliation or yell at him. Yelling would have been good.

Instead, it was as if he didn't exist to her anymore. She would sit down with him for meals, but she wouldn't attempt a conversation with him. Quite literally, he got his wish too late. She left him alone.

Now Mahad realized how much he missed the old Mana. It seemed as if whatever had been between them as siblings had vanished. And that just made Mahad more lonely than he already was. He already lost his parents, did he have to lose his sister too?

Mana was unaware of Mahad's inner musings as she checked her messages. Her old friends still kept in contact with her, but the only message from today was from Kisara.

**Try 2 have fun. He is ur brother. U should talk 2 each other. Talk when u get back.**

Mana mentally smiled at Kisara's text and pulled up a picture of her and her friend striking a silly pose which was her wall paper.

When Mana had looked around for a place to sit for lunch on her first day, she noticed Kisara in the corner by herself. Mana had asked if she could sit down and that began a really great friendship.

In fact, it was the only thing Mana could say was good from having to move in with her brother.

Kisara had clicked with her in a way that was so different from her old friends. Though quiet and withdrawn, Kisara and her shared something Mana couldn't put into words. Maybe it was the universe's law of "Opposites attract."

A flight attendant noticed Mana's cell phone out.

"Um miss, we're about to take off."

Mana sighed and turned off her phone.

"Alright."

The flight attendant gave her a small smile as she passed by. Mana stared out the window waiting for takeoff.

Mana reconsidered her thoughts on this trip. She hated it since her brother had announced it almost a month ago(good thing they both had passports) and she definitely was not looking forward to just hanging around a dig site or a hotel for her brother's work for a couple of weeks.

Then again, it could be a lot worse.

_I mean, come on, it's not like it's going to cause the end of the world…. No harm ever came from visiting a dig site._

* * *

**V.E.: And no harm ever came from reading a book. I love that line since I'm bibliophile(one who loves books). To anyone who cares, I've updated my profile with some new story ideas.**

**Oh Mana, you have no idea what you're in store for. Don't worry the rest of the group will come in later.**

**Review please. Otherwise, I will probably go into a hissy fit and just not update for however long I'm mad. And this applies to all stories.**


	2. Landing in Egypt

**V.E.: Only two? On second thought, I should know better.**

**Now we get into more of the vase shiping and The Mummy parts. **

**Roll chapter!**

* * *

_She looked out from the balcony to the lights of the city glowing in the distance and the numerous stars across the temptress blue sky. The moon was as full as a pearl. She sighed appreciatively._

_A deep tone echoed her thoughts, warm and calming._

"_Beautiful, isn't it?"_

_She turned to find a shadowed figure behind her. There was nothing else she could discern about the figure aside from perhaps the unusually pointed hairstyle and a gleaming golden pendant he was wearing._

_She felt a smirk across her features._

"_Aren't you supposed to be talking with Seto or Shimon?"_

_The figure seemed to return her smirk as he came closer._

"_Shimon turned in early, I think he knew that I wasn't in the mood to go over those things tonight. And Seto…is otherwise occupied. So, I'm open for the rest of the night."_

_He was standing right next to her and wrapped his arms around her while drawing closer to her face and planting his lips on hers quickly. He then pulled back and tried to kiss her again, but she stopped him with her hand. Her smirk had slid off her face._

_Her tone became serious, she knew she had to say this. _

"_No Pharaoh. This has to end."_

_She could tell his eyes had narrowed in annoyance and he grabbed her hand fiercely with his own._

"_Why should it?"_

_She felt her eyes roll and her mind become exasperated. For the living incarnation of Horus, the pharaoh didn't understand things he should know better than anyone._

"_Don't you understand? I'm just a normal born girl, a commoner, and an orphan at that. It doesn't matter whether or not I was brought to the palace because I have magic. It doesn't matter that you and I have been friends since we were children. And…"_

_She gazed at him pleadingly, for the first time noticing the ruby red eyes tinged with royal purple. The look in them made her take another breathe as she continued on._

"_And it doesn't matter that I love you. This relationship should never have been."_

_The ruby red eyes widened in realization before narrowing in again in anger. _

"_My uncle has been to see you, hasn't he? I told you…."_

_She felt her own eyes go from pleading to defiant._

"_That doesn't mean he doesn't have a point! And he knows! They all do! They won't say anything because you are the pharaoh, but they do not approve!"_

_She took a breath from talking so sharply. She had to say it and she had more to say._

"_You should know better than anyone it cannot stay like this. Your fate is to lead Egypt and my fate is to stand beside you as a magician of your court, not your lover. You'll marry some Egyptian noble or royalty from another country."_

_His voice cut in brusquely as his hand brought both of theirs to her face, his hand on her cheek and eyes staring straight at her._

"_How can you say these things?"_

_She felt the urge to shy away from his touch, but her body would not move from his touch. She felt compelled to answer him with his eyes on her._

"_Because it's true."_

_The man shifted closer to her even more as he released his hand from hers and wrapped both of his arms around her. He tucked her head under his chin and stroked her hair in a comforting gesture that obviously had been used before._

_She ignored the feelings within her that wanted to stay in this position forever, to never let go of this person to anything and anyone._

_He, on the other hand, had no qualms about staying together._

"_How can I? How can I marry someone when I want someone else? That would be doubly cruel for both me and the poor girl involved. Believe it or not, I've tried to forget you."_

_She looked up at him quickly, confused and surprised. And maybe just a little bit angry._

_"What? When was this?"_

_He seemed to have regained a small smirk at her reaction._

"_Around the time I realized I saw you much more than my childhood friend. I hung out with the noble girls and avoided you because I thought if I didn't see you anymore, nothing would change. But I realized after a while that avoiding you didn't help. In fact, it probably made it worse. The dreams I had…"_

_He trailed away with a slight blush, realizing exactly what he was saying. Then clearing his throat, he continued._

"_Point is, I couldn't. I don't want anyone else. I want you and only you."_

_She felt her breathe catch in her throat as she looked up at her lover and he turned his attention back to her. He kissed her again and again, this time she was returning his kisses, making the embrace more passionate. They eventually had to break for air, but their closeness was not dissolved. Her head had returned to under his chin._

_He gazed down at her._

"_I'm not giving up just because things seem impossible. Besides, the Seven High Priests do not disapprove of us."_

_She looked up at him with a raised eyebrow._

"_Okay, so my Uncle doesn't approve, but if I can convince the others it's alright. Karim is pretty accepting and I think Shimon has resigned himself to my decision. Seto kind of owes me one and Shada will probably side with him."_

_She gave a small reproving look._

"_Hey, I like Kisara. And you have to admit, it's nice to see Seto show some emotion."_

"_Who said I disagreed with you? Still, it would be pretty hypocritical of him to criticize me."_

_She thought for a moment at those words._

"_Come to think of it, Aknadin disapproves of Kisara more than me. When he looks at her, it's like she's done something unforgivable to him."_

_Her lover seemed to consider the statement._

"_That's true. But I think he is just scared of any of the High Priests getting close to anyone and forgetting about their duties."_

_She then remembered a certain detail the two had forgotten._

"_Pharaoh, you've forgotten something."_

"_What's that?"_

"_Mahad."_

"_Oh."_

_And the silence pervaded the night as both of them recalled the very explosive reaction by the High Priest when he found out about those two's relationship, given in private to them both of course and not in public._

_It still gave her shudders._

"_Master was angry. And I thought when we snuck out of the palace when we were kids, he had blown his top."_

_He visibly cringed._

"_That was bad. You'd never think Mahad would be capable of that kind of rage. But I kind of expected it. He does consider you family."_

_He 'hmmed' and thought for a moment before feeling a 'ding' in his head._

"_Then I'll give him my blessing to marry Isis. That ought to shut up. Though, I'd have given it to him if he would just ask me. If only to see the dumbstruck look on his face."_

_She laughed a little._

"_Mahad is too scared to ask you. There isn't any precedent for Guardians to marry anyone, let alone two Guardians together."_

_He smirked at her response._

"_And there's no precedent for a pharaoh and a magician being together. So?"_

_He kissed her again and the two wrestled with each other passionately. Not noticing where their motions taking them as he swept her up and carried her inside….._

* * *

"Mana. Mana. MANA!"

Mana groggily opened her eyes, as she felt something shaking her awake. For a moment, she felt disoriented. Where was she?

When she focused her eyes, she found Mahad looking at her with concern in his dark charcoal eyes and saw other passengers getting out from their seats. Oh right, Egypt trip.

Mana yawned and covered it with her hand.

"What? Are we there yet?"

Mahad seemed to give a slight sigh of relief before giving her a concerned look.

"Yeah, we're here. Are you alright? You were muttering something."

For a moment, Mana was struck by how strange Mahad was acting. He never acted like this with her. Then again, she never really relied on her brother when it came to nightmares or other things she was scared of. She could handle whatever problems she had.

Then she remembered where she was.

Mana looked away from her brother and got her things together.

"Nothing. Just a really weird dream."

Mahad was still concerned, but decided to let it go since they had to get to customs now.

Mana didn't really pay attention to the long line at customs, completely absorbed in her thoughts. Her finger kept tracing her lips. This wasn't the first time she had ever dreamed about Ancient Egypt and it wasn't the first time she had dreamed about kissing a shadowed figure. But never had those two things crossed before and yet why did that dream feel so real?

It was almost like it was a memory.

She stopped herself and shook the thoughts out. She really needed to get a vacation from all things Egyptian after this trip. She just hoped Mahad wasn't going to lecture more, but just as she thought that, she realized that was a futile hope.

She groaned when the siblings finally cleared. This was really going to be one long trip.

"Mahad! Glad you could make it!"

Mahad and Mana both turned their attention to two people. The first was an elderly gentlemen in a suit and a red tie with a mustache who carried himself properly. Next to him, was a young girl that looked several years younger than Mana with blonde hair in pigtails, glasses, and green eyes similar to the elder man that gave the impression they were related.

Mahad lit up as he went over to the elder man and hugged him.

"Professor Hawkins! I didn't know you were going to be here!"

The elder man chuckled.

"I know, I'm getting too old for this, but apparently one of the professors saw something interesting and it ties in with my research so they gave me a call and here I am. It's good to see you again. How's the museum?"

Mahad shrugged.

"It's mostly just storage and tours. To be honest, it's a little boring."

Professor Hawkins chuckled in understanding.

"Not exactly like the movies of getting out on a historical dig and discovering some mythical treasure, eh?"

Mahad gave the professor a leveled look.

"You realize those movies are completely inaccurate, right? I mean, every time…"

Mana decided to cut in then, knowing her brother could go on for hours on this subject.

"And that's why I can't take you to any movies. You just complain the whole time. Besides, movies aren't necessarily known for their historical accuracy."

Professor Hawkins and the girl beside him then finally shifted their gaze to Mana. The professor's eyes lightened up in recognition and he proceeded to shake her hand.

"You must be Mana. Mahad has told me a lot about you."

Mana shook the hand warily.

"I wonder what he's told you about me. I'm sorry, but how do you know my brother?"

Mahad gestured to the Hawkins.

"Mana, this is my old Egyptology professor, Professor Arthur Hawkins, and the girl is his granddaughter Rebecca. Professor Hawkins helped me get my job at the museum."

Mana scored over her mind in search then focused in on Rebecca.

"Hawkins, where have I heard that last name before? Oh right! You're the American Duel Monsters Champion aren't you, Rebecca?"

Rebecca nodded, pleased at the recognition.

"That's me. Are you player then?"

"Not really, but the boys in both my old school and current school are nuts over the game and they're not exactly quiet about it. I tried to understand it once, but I really couldn't get the rules. I'm more of a 'watching bystander'. You speak Japanese really well."

"Thank you. I've been to Japan a couple of times with my grandfather for tournaments and visiting. Though I admit, it will be nice to see Yugi poo again soon without taking a trip to Japan."

Mahad's eyes widened in surprise and even more happiness.

"Wait, you mean…"

Professor Hawkins chuckled at Mahad's reaction.

"You didn't know that Solomon and the boys would be joining us, Mahad?"

Mahad shook his head furiously.

"I had no idea! Then again, I haven't heard anything from them since before…."

His voice trailed off as his thoughts wandered towards a dark place, foreign to the Hawkins and too well known to Mana. She knew she had to snap Mahad out of it before it got really bad.

"So who's Solomon Muto?"

Mahad snapped back to reality with a slight smile.

"Solomon Muto was the guy who rented me a room in his house junior year. "

Mana hmmed.

"Junior Year…..isn't that when you got kicked out of the dorm because of your crazy roommate?"

Mahad scowled slightly, a slight twitch going through his fingers. After that had been finished, he resumed a normal appearance.

"Yes, that year. Professor Hawkins referred me to him when he found out about that little...incident. I also had to help out in the Game Shop, but I have to admit it was kind of fun learning about the different games and Professor Muto was a great help when it came to my thesis."

He then let out a dry chuckle.

"Of course, right after I learned the games, I would get creamed by his twin grandsons. Those two didn't show me any mercy. So they're coming here, with him?"

Professor Hawkins nodded.

"There are no tournaments this summer, so they decided to come out with Solomon. Once I called up Solomon about the excavation journey, he decided in coming along in on one last adventure."

Mana felt a little out the loop.

"Why would he just come out here like that? What's so important about this excavation anyway?"

Mahad sighed.

"You weren't paying attention at all when I was telling you about this last month, were you?"

Mana gave her older brother a look.

"You expected me too?"

A tense silence followed before being broken by Professor Hawkins.

"Now, now. It's late and we should be getting you to the hotel. Shall we hurry along?"

The two siblings consented as they readied to walk away when Mana caught something dark looking out of the corner of her eye. She looked at it straight on to find a dark hooded figure with some strange symbol on it almost looking in their direction. An uneasy feeling settle in her stomach.

Rebecca noticed the older girl go quiet.

"Mana, what's wrong?"

Mana turned to face Rebecca before turning back to find the cloaked figure already gone. She rubbed her eyes. Great she was seeing things now.

She shook her head towards Rebecca as she began moving towards the exit.

"It's nothing."

* * *

**V.E.: It's not nothing Mana. You should trust your instincts more.**

**Reading over this, have to say not my best, but not my worst. I wanted to do more, but I'm slightly exhausted as it as. Wait til next time.**

**Well, at the moment I'm alternating between updating Blue Eyes Cinderella and this. So I'll update this after I update that.**

**Of course I'd be a lot more motivated if I got more reviews than last time. (Hint, hint people.)**

**Ps. Poll on my page. Please visit and vote.**


	3. Different Lessons

**V.E.: WOW! Thank you to all who reviewed, such as my guest reviewer which I can't thank personally. And I got my first college acceptance letter, which means I am not without hope for the future! Just joking. Let's see if I can get this chapter rolling.**

* * *

When one thought of hotels, you'd think of the Hilton. Grand suites, pools, beds that are left with mints on the pillows after the maid cleans them. In other words, a place of relaxation and luxury.

Unfortunately, the place where Mahad and Mana were spending the night hardly fell under the category of hotel. A good portion of the money was spent on the plane and the rest was to go towards the dig which left very little for the hotel. The room had two beds, but looked barely clean. There were also cracks in the walls and Mana thought the air conditioning was broken. Still, it was cheap.

The ride to the hotel had mostly been Mahad and Professor Hawkins talking about current articles about Ancient Egypt. Mana and Rebecca didn't know what to say to each other, but had managed to get into a small discussion on their relatives' enthusiasm for all things Ancient Egypt. Rebecca certainly sympathized because while she did like learning, there were times her grandfather could go a little over the top.

At the moment, both siblings were pondering over their respective notebooks. Mahad had brought his research with him which was currently sprawled out all over his bed in the organization of "What I need more is closer to my reach." He was currently making notes on some translation of whatever ancient text he currently had.

Mana had spent most of the plane ride catching up on school work for the simple fact she didn't want to leave everything to the minute like last time. With that out of the way, she was currently trying to sketch her dream. She had once talked to Kisara about how weird her dreams were and she had suggested that Mana should write them down since she wouldn't forget them. Mana wasn't the best writer, so she decided instead to draw her dreams. She really wished she had some colored pencils though, she wanted to capture the color of the eyes.

Most of it was Ancient Egyptian looking, though some of it she really couldn't place. Like the one of a well-dressed archaeologist hanging by an arm from falling to his shadowy death(she really couldn't understand where that came from). Some of it was of her parents and some of it was of Mahad. Strangely enough, she had never drawn anything of herself.

While she was trying to get the look in the pharaoh's eyes just right, she felt a nag in her mind. An itch that needed to be scratched and the only way she could was ask Mahad. It was a battle of wills between what she wanted and her pride. Which pride was currently losing.

Finally giving in, she looked up from her sketchbook and turned her attention to her brother.

"So, you know you never answered my question earlier."

Mahad didn't even look up from his notes.

"Why do you want to know? You weren't listening earlier."

"Well, I'm listening now."

Mahad sighed, but looked up from his work. This was the first time Mana had asked him something since the funeral, not to mention something to do with his work. He definitely took pride in what he studied. He made eye contact with Mana(to make sure she was really listening) and started on the explanation.

"Around eight months ago, there was a tomb found in the Valley of Kings. It wasn't any royal tomb, but it was certainly of a person of great status. Perhaps a high priest or vizier. Anyway, most of the valuables had already been stolen by tomb robbers long ago, but there was something unusual in one of the pots. Well, actually two somethings.

"The first was a scroll of papyrus of what seemed to be architectural plan of some great temple. One of my colleagues at the museum was there and managed to decode the hieroglyphs. The literal translation was; _Here lies the House of Anubis. Where the utterly damned are confined for eternity. Turn back mortals lest you join the Oath breaker and his followers." _

Mana cringed. Old as it was, it still sounded creepy.

"Well that's a cheery message."

Mahad nodded.

"Yeah, I know. But it was the style of writing that caught my colleague's attention. Some of the hieroglyphs were developed in the Great Gap or Gap Period of Egyptian history."

Mana recalled a conversation with her brother over a paper he was writing once.

"Isn't that the time where there's very little records for? And the ones that are seem to be halfway destroyed?"

Mahad looked at his sister incredulously.

"You actually listened when I was telling you about this."

"You were going on and on about your paper. It took a long time to get most of that stuff out of my brain. Go on."

"Well, he contacted me and I got a copy of the notes. And I noticed a cartouche with the name scratched away."

Mana's eyes widened.

"So that's why we're here. It's because of the Nameless Pharaoh."

The Nameless Pharaoh had been what her brother had been trying to write an article on for some time. Mana had no idea why her brother was so interested in this particular pharaoh despite there being little known about him. Nonetheless, her brother was fascinated with him and the Great Gap.

Mahad nodded.

"Due to some of the markers on the scroll, we managed to determine a general destination. About a month ago, there was some definite things uncovered. If I could find the slightest hint of the Nameless Pharaoh, it would do wonders for my article."

Mana then posed a question.

"So what's this second thing that was so interesting?"

Mahad smiled. Now came the _really_ interesting part. He pulled a stone tablet out of his bag near the right hand corner of his bed and gingerly handed it to Mana.

"That would be this. Seem familiar?"

Mana cautiously looked down at the tablet. It depicted some strange creature, yet at the same time it was hauntingly familiar to Mana. She kept looking at it, searching her mind for the answer, until it finally hit her. Her eyes went wide in shock as her brother smiled.

"This looks like….!"

Mahad nodded, the smile still there.

"Kuriboh? Exactly."

Mana couldn't understand how this was possible.

"But how is a Duel Monster on a tablet that came from Ancient Egypt?"

Mahad chuckled.

"Well, I guess I'm not surprised you don't know. Duel Monsters was actually first played in Ancient Egypt. Maxmillion Pegasus, the creator of Duel Monsters, discovered the game on an expedition and decided to remake it for the present day. Industrial Illusions and Kaiba Corp are actually help funding this expedition, though I get the feeling Seto Kaiba didn't do this willingly."

Mana considered the new found information. Who would have guessed the game people were crazy about was actually quite old?

"Though it does make sense. Kaiba Corp provides the technology that produces the duel disks, the virtual games, and Kaibaland; all tied in with Duel Monsters."

Mahad nodded.

"It does. But what little I have known of Seto Kaiba makes me think he didn't go into this willingly."

Mana's eyes widened in surprise.

"Mahad, you've met Seto Kaiba?"

Mahad sighed.

"Yes I have and I honestly wish to never meet with him again. Let's just say, he makes Uncle Hakim look like a generous caring soul."

Mana cringed. Uncle Hakim was her mother's half-brother and he was the most uptight stingy person Mana had ever known. The guy didn't even bother to show up for his own half-sister's funeral, which was one of his only family members left. Mahad's opinion of his uncle was even lower than hers and for him to prefer Hakim to someone else, must mean this Seto Kaiba rubbed him the wrong way.

Mahad continued on, as if wishing to brush away the current topic.

"Anyway, Duel Monsters is also the reason why Professor Hawkins and Professor Muto are coming on this expedition."

Mana still felt a little confused.

"I can see Mr. Muto coming along since he owns a game shop, but what does Professor Hawkins..?"

Mahad raised his hand to get her attention.

"I was getting to that. Some years ago, Professor Hawkins and Professor Muto came across some similar carvings. This was around the same times that Duel Monsters was created. Professor Hawkins developed a hypothesis that these monsters actually existed and were called upon to defend Egypt. Also, that these monsters might exist in a parallel dimension right next to our own."

Mana's eyes went wide as she felt an unsettling feeling settle in the pit of her stomach. As if it wasn't completely crazy.

"You're joking me right? No offense, but that's completely crazy!"

Mahad scowled slightly, but seemed pretty accepting of his sister's reaction.

"That's exactly what most people thought when Professor Hawkins proposed the idea. Of course, it wasn't so crazy when some similar carvings and drawings were also found in a pyramid in India."

Mana felt her mind go in circles. Was there anything in this explanation that wouldn't surprise her?

"There are pyramids in India?"

"Pyramid, singular. Anyway, it gave a lot more evidence to the theory. Since then, there have been Duel Monsters carvings found in almost every ancient culture."

The pride part of Mana's brain had won out now that the curiosity side had been satisfied. Along with being slightly convinced at her brother's state of mind being somewhat crazy, she was tired and ready for bed.

She went over to her bed and put her sketchbook away in her bag and crawled under the covers.

"Well, don't stay up too late. I'm turning in."

Mahad sighed at being cut off. She obviously wasn't convinced.

"Alright. Try not to snore again."

Mana had turned away from her brother, trying to get herself into a comfortable position.

"You're the one who snores Mahad. Good night."

Mahad shook his head slightly and turned back to his notes. Well at least she was listening to him. That's a step in the right direction.

* * *

_She curled under the sheets, trying very hard to not let any sound escape her mouth. Despite wanting to bawl, she had to remain quiet. Otherwise, someone would know where she was and then they'd just start yelling at her again._

_She hated the palace, she hated the inner court. Sometimes she wondered whether it would have been better if she had stayed where she was in the first place, but she knew she couldn't go back. _

_It wasn't much different here, aside from the prince who had become her first and only friend. But he currently had a slight cold and she hadn't seen him in a while._

_She snuggled closer to the covers. She was lonely again and there was nothing that could be done about it. She was stuck here and could never leave. She was to be trained as a magician and would serve under the pharaoh when she attained the title. Leaving was not an option, if she ran away she'd probably be executed. Besides, she knew there was no one waiting for her._

_She heard the door open and shut. Whoever it was, was going to see the lump under the covers, but she made no attempts to move herself._

_The bed felt weighed down by something. The person must be sitting there. A hand reaches out to her back which still had the sheet over it._

_A voice both familiar and infuriating to her came out softly._

"_Mana…?"_

_She snuggled into the sheets more, her mouth threatening to open itself._

"_Mana, I know you're there."_

_She didn't want to leave her spot much less for him._

"_Go away."_

_The voice sighs, exasperated._

"_Mana, this is my room. If anything, you should go away."_

"_Don't care. Leave me alone."_

_A moment passes and the weight shifts more towards her. He must really want to yell at her again._

"_I said leave me alone. You made your point. I won't bother you anymore."_

_The sheets are being pulled off slightly and she hugs them even tighter. She doesn't want to be seen and feels the tears well up in her eyes._

_The voice still spoke in a soft tone to her._

"_Mana, I just want to say I'm sorry."_

_Her reply was as muffled as the rest of her replies had been._

"_No you're not. You're only apologizing because Master Rashidi told you to."_

"_That's not true."_

"_Yes it is!"_

_The voice sighed and seemed to take on a more desperate tone._

"_Mana, I swear it's not. Please come out from there. I feel like I'm talking to a pillow under my covers, not you."_

_She hesitates for a moment the slowly begins to let go off the sheets. She comes out of the covers and looks at him. He is shadowed just like everyone else in her dream, but from his height he could easily be identified as a teenager. She is a small child by comparison. Yet, she could see his bluish gray eyes almost as dark as the kohl mascara accenting them. The gaze was sincere and pleaded to the small girl just as much as his voice did._

_She sniffled and wiped the tears out her eyes. _

_He kept looking at her, the guilt rising within him tremendously._

"_Mana, I'm really, truly, honest to Ra, sorry. I got upset, I shouldn't have yelled."_

_She holds the covers to her chest._

"_But you meant it. And it's true."_

_He cringes, taken back by the dead tone._

"_No it isn't.."_

_She cuts in, her voice sharp._

"_Yes it is! Everyone says so. I really am a worthless magician that just causes trouble."_

_Suddenly, the tears rush out and she can't stop from crying. She just wishes he would go away now._

_He was taken back by the crying, surprised being an understatement. All this time, he was used to her being so cheerful it was annoying. Perhaps this was the truth. Maybe she had tried so hard to smile and joke just to hide her true feelings from everyone._

_He shifted even closer to her and wrapped his arms around the small sobbing girl. He strokes her back, allowing her to just cry her heart out._

"_It's alright. Go ahead let it all out."_

_Neither of the two of them know how long this goes on, only that it continues for a while._

_Finally, she becomes quiet and looks up at him with an apologizing look._

"_I'm sorry about the scrolls."_

_He sighs tiredly._

"_It's alright. Scrolls can always be rewritten."_

_She hesitates for a moment, unsure of what he'll say._

"_Hey Mahad, can you tell me a story?"_

_He looked down at her with one of his eyebrows raised._

"_What? Why?"_

_She shrugged._

"_I was looking at some of the pictures in the halls, but I really didn't understand them. Prince says it's about some ancient war."_

"_Didn't anyone ever tell you about this stuff?"_

_She shook her head._

"_The person who took care of me before I came here never said anything like that. She really didn't like to talk to me at all really. And no one else really cared."_

_He looked at her sadly, by the matter of fact tone she said this all in._

"_Well, if you mean about the war of Horus against Seth, I guess I can tell you a little. It all started when….."_

_%%%%_

_The door opened once more and two grown men in shadows came in. Again, not much could be seen about them except they both possessed gleaming golden pendants. One seemed like a pyramid upside down and the other had a ring around a pyramid with several things attached._

_The two looked immediately saw the two asleep and close together. If the two didn't know better, they'd say the pair looked like brother and sister._

_The one with the ring pendant sighed in relief._

"_Well, it looks like those two managed to patch things up on their own. It's a good thing the prince is still sick and doesn't anything about this."_

_The other with the pyramid nodded._

"_Yes it is and a good thing they did it before he found out about the argument. It's awkward to be between two people you care about. Though I questioned your choice about Mahad training Mana, I guess I was wrong."_

"_No, I was a little worried too. They weren't the best of friends, but I get the feeling they'll get along better now."_

_His companion smiled._

"_It's too bad it had to come to this."_

"_No it isn't and that's why I chose for Mana to be Mahad's apprentice after he achieves his master rank. For all the knowledge of scrolls, they can be somewhat lacking in experiences of the heart. This was another type of lesson he needed to learn."_

_The man with the pyramid pendant nodded, his eyes still settled on the sleeping figures._

"_I know what you mean. And that's why I'm placing my hope in those two to help teach my son those lessons. So is your apprentice ready for the final tests Rashidi?"_

_The shadowed man, now known as Rashidi, smiled._

"_Oh yes, I think he's ready now. But let's leave them alone, they need their rest."_

* * *

**V.E.: Okay, this is mostly a Mahad and Mana bonding chapter slightly. I will never write them as a shipping since I see them as brother and sister or master and apprentice. I'm kind of tempted to do an extended thing of the Egyptian memory in Mahad's point of view, but if I do that it will be a separate oneshot.**

**I wanted to do more, but I'm currently over three thousand words as I'm writing this. So I guess I"ll just put off the marketplace visit I was going to do until next chapter.**

**I'll get more into vaseshipping in later chapters. I just thought it would be a good idea to talk about the excavation.**

**Now, same as last time. Blue Eyes Cinderella first, Mummy next.**

**For those that have not been paying attention, please visit my profile and vote on my poll.**

**Please review with good feedback.**


	4. A Warning

**V.E.: Well, I've finally managed to update Blue Eyes Cinderella, so now I'm ready to write this chapter out. But there's something I'd like to ask you all at the end so stay tuned.**

**I wanted to get this done before I have to start studying for exams and there is no way my dad is going to let me on computer that week! He really goes overboard with my studying.**

**I don't think I even need the disclaimer, just roll the chapter.**

* * *

The sun is evil to anyone who first wakes up in the morning. No one likes waking up and getting up out of bed once they've settled and become incredibly comfortable. Yet they get up any way to do their jobs and eat their breakfasts.

Such was Mahad's point of view as he slightly cracked his eyelid and got an onslaught off sun. He blinked it shut before turning in the opposite direction and tried again, making sure his eyes got adjusted to the light. He eventually sat up and pondered last night's sleep.

_What kind of a dream was that?_

Unlike his sister(not that he knew it), Mahad had never had any dreams that he conversed with in sleep talking or had woken him up in the middle of the night with a cold sweat. Most of his dreams were commercials mixed in with his own worries. At the least the ones he remembered. The others were just plain, blank, and blended together.

But this one was different. Even though he couldn't really remember most of it, he knew that he had been in Ancient Egypt and there was a young girl in it too. The last thing he remembered was stroking the young girl's back as he told her a story, like when Mana hurt herself when she was little. That was the way Mahad had always tried to calm her down and it usually worked.

Speaking of his sister, she had woken up early(an unusual occurrence, but one that had become more frequent since moving in with him) and currently had her back to him, hunched over as she seemed completely absorbed in her sketchbook.

He couldn't recall the first time his sister had been drawing like that, only that she had been doing it sometime after she had started her new school. Mahad felt incredibly curious and wanted to have a look at the drawings, but Mana didn't show it to him or anyone. It hardly ever left her sight.

_Like Atem and Yugi with their duel deck. They treasure it with their lives._

He felt himself smile as he recalled the spiky tricolor twins. In the time he had known them working at the Kame Game Shop, he thought of them like the little brothers he never had. He got to know their friends much better than he had ever known about Mana's friends before Kisara. In some ways, they reminded him of his sister and made him realize how much he missed her and everything else at home. He just wouldn't want them in the same room as her. He got the feeling she would embarrass him more than his mother ever had. If she ever told them everything...he shuddered at the possibility of her gaining new partners in crime in "Pranking Mahad."

Now that was a new thought. For a moment, he felt uneasy. He had no idea how Mana would react to meeting them now. At the very least, he hoped she would try to be nice and not try to be difficult with him again. That would lead to a host of questions that he did not want to answer.

"You know, if you want to get ready for buying supplies in the market, you might want to get up now."

Mahad's eyes widened in surprise.

"How did you know I was up?"

She didn't look up from her sketchbook or turn around to face him.

"Just a hunch."

"Did you sleep well?"

"Fine."

He shook his head slightly as he got up stretched. He was about to make for the bathroom when Mana interrupted, as if she knew what he was thinking.

"Don't think about a shower, there's no hot water."

"I'll deal with the cold. Do you wanna come along or am I leaving you here?"

She shook her head as she closed her sketchbook and straightened herself.

"No, I'll go with you guys. I wanted to get a souvenir for Kisara while we were here."

Mahad allowed himself a small smile at the name of Mana's new best friend. He had been a little worried that Mana wouldn't be able to make any friends, but that was a groundless fear. That she made friends with a person like Kisara was a blessing, otherwise he would have no idea what she was doing while he was at work. He easily saw the girl like another sister.

Of course there was also the strangest feeling of trust and déjà vu he had when he first met her. Like he knew her from somewhere and couldn't remember where. Kind of similar to when he met Atem or Solomon Muto or even Seto Kaiba(granted that was hate at first sight).

He pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind as he closed the bathroom door and started up the shower. He better get this done quickly. He didn't want to spend too much time at the market today and miss the Mutos arriving.

* * *

_AND I've officially lost my brother._

Mana sighed as she stood by the fruit merchant's stand as she took a bite out of her apple and scanned the crowd for her brother with no luck. The loud noise of the crowd intermingled with the strange spices on the air.

Her brother and Professor Hawkins had been searching very avidly for dig supplies and any unusual artifacts the locals had come across. Probably while she had been admiring and buying her breakfast, Mahad and the Professor had noticed a new shop and gone there without telling her.

_I better stay close by until Mahad remembers I'm here and texts me. Honestly, when he gets in his mood, he can see nothing but his research. Such is the fate of those with an academic sibling._

As soon as she finished up her apple, she looked over at the jewelry stand next door. The seller was glad to have someone notice him and invited her to examine his merchandise(at least she thought he did, she didn't speak Arabic that well). She definitely didn't look Egyptian with her paler skin and lack of a hejab that was standard for any Muslim female here, perhaps he was hoping for a big sale from the obvious tourist.

Unfortunately, Mana wasn't really much of a jewelry person. Luckily for him, she was shopping for a friend.

The jewelry definitely bore a resemblance to its ancient counterparts. Cartouche pedants, rings and pendants using scrabs, ankhs, the eye of Horus. Some of the jewelry depicted the Ancient Egyptian gods and goddess, some resembled ancient pharaohs.

Mahad had once told her, how proud a country can be of their heritage especially Egyptians. Back during the uprising against the former Egyptian president, they hadn't gone near the museum at all.

She felt herself intrigued for a little while by the Bedouin style earrings, but she knew they would probably be too heavy for her ears.

Eventually, she settle herself on some silver lotus earrings for Kisara. The pure white flower of the Nile, often given as an expression of love in Ancient Egypt from the woman to a man, the symbol of rebirth and creation. She couldn't think of a better gift for her friend.

Just as she finished her purchase and the jewelry seller thank her for her business in Egyptian Arabic, she felt the heat grow slightly colder and the noise seem to be dying to a mumble.

Even as she felt these things, Mana knew there was no way this was actually happening. She had felt this before. Near the park when she was younger before Mahad almost got hit by a car. Right after the bell rang to find Kisara being picked on just around the corner. Minutes before she got that phone call from the hospital.

Dreading what she would find, she turned around going against any sane instinct in her.

The dark cloaked figure with same insignia from the airport was right there, watching her. But this time he had two or three other with him, dressed in the same cloaks.

Her fight and flight response blazed forward. This time she took the sane option: _run_.

She quickly slipped her jewelry into her bag, next to her sketchbook as she quickly sprinted away from the dark group, who tried very hard to keep up with her as she weaved in and out through the crowd.

Mana tried very hard to avoid bumping into other people as she bumped into a basket merchant that gave a not so happy response. She shot the man in what hoped to be an apologizing look.

"Sorry about that!"

A couple of moments, she braked slightly as a cluster of chickens ran passed her in an effort to get away from their owner as he chased after them. She dove into the nearby alley, not really caring about the trash and other discarded things she knocked over.

Finally coming out on the other side, she bumped into a figure in white who caught her and steadied her.

"I'm so sorry about that!"

The man's reply was calm.

"Calm yourself."

Mana's eyes widened as she realized that he had answered in Japanese. She slowly steadied herself and got a look at the figure.

He certainly looked Egyptian and was dressed with a white turban to go with his white outfit. His face was as placid as his tone of voice. At a first glance, he didn't look that special compared to anyone else in the city.

But Mana did take a second look and saw something that wouldn't have been caught otherwise. He had a golden pendant hanging around his neck that looked like an ankh with a small groove on one side, giving it the impression of a key.

And then there were his eyes. Blue eyes without pupils with no emotion and gave the appearance of no soul.

Those eyes glanced at her for a moment before turning their gaze to beyond the alley. Mana turned back to that direction. There didn't seem to be anything there. It seemed as if the hooded figures were gone.

If possible, the man seemed to have gained a reproving look. His voice was similar, but these things were hard to tell about the expressionless man.

"They are too obvious."

Mana looked back at the man in confusion.

"What?"

He shook his head slowly, his face still incredibly calm.

"Never you mind that now."

"Oh."

For a few moments, the strange man just looked at her, his thoughts unknowable. She felt somewhat subconscious and nervous as the dead looking eyes surveyed her.

Finally he spoke again.

"I can't say whether it's a good thing or a bad thing _you _have come here. Granted I suppose they would have come eventually. The desert tries very hard to keep its secrets, but eventually they are unearthed."

Mana felt a mental _Huh?_, but didn't voice it.

The man looked over her once more before turning away.

"Nonetheless, regardless of you wanting to be here or not, you are here now. And before this is all over, they will need you."

She felt a sudden desire to back away from the strange man, but she didn't need to as he began to walk away. Yet she called back to him as soon as she realized it.

"Um, what do you mean? Why am I…?"

He turned back to her one last time, the face the same as ever.

"I am Shadi, a disciple of Anubis. And when we meet again, you will have some of your answers."

He left her speechless as she let him vanish out of her sight.

* * *

_That was creepy._

Mana sighed as she thought over the strange encounter as she made her way back to the fruit stand.

Not that she was a stranger to creepy things, but this one certainly made her top ten list. And yet she got this feeling in the pit of her stomach that she would definitely see Shadi again.

_Why do I get the feeling all hell's going to break lose soon?_

But before she could ponder the encounter even further and make herself even more worried, she heard something break behind her and she turned to see what it was.

At that exact moment, someone collided into her and landed them both on the ground. Her bag spilled off to the side and some things were now sprawled out on the street.

She groaned as her eyes were shut.

_This certainly my day of running into people._

She heard a groan from her collider and felt him on top of her.

"Oh, are you alright?"

Again, like before the person answered in Japanese, but like a native speaker, not like Shadi who had spoken with an Arabic accent.

She opened her eyes slowly as one opens them in the morning and felt them go incredibly wide as she beheld the familiar eyes of the stranger's amethyst gaze at her with concern.

* * *

**V.E.: Before you all complain and say this chapter is too short, I originally planned for this to be in the last chapter. The next one will definitely be longer, well long as I can manage.**

**To the best of my knowledge regarding the uprising against the former Egyptian president, they didn't touch the museum. Egyptian have a great respect and pride for their past.**

**I was looking at the Egyptian jewelry online for inspiration. The lotus flower really does represent the things previously stated.**

**Now I know, I currently have a poll on my page, but I'm putting up a new one. Check it out for the details.**

**Also, I posted that one shot I mentioned in the last chapter. If you haven't checked it out already, please do.**

**As stated earlier, it'll probably be awhile before you hear from me again.**

**In any case, please review.**


	5. First Impressions

**V.E.: Okay, I survived exams and the Common Application, so I should be able to survive just about anything short of a thing that would kill just about any person.(Including Economics). You will not believe how much I've been thinking out this part. I knew how I wanted to begin and end it, but the middle confused me. I apologize if it sucks.**

**Ah well, I guess I'll just let you guys decide whether this chapter is worth it or not. Roll Chapter!**

* * *

Mana didn't believe in love at first sight.

As fond as she was of romance in books or movies, she found it incredibly unrealistic. I mean, how can two people look at each other for one moment then instantly fall in love? Romeo and Juliet was completely lost on her in that regard.

That being said, she certainly believed attraction at first sight. And lust at first sight.

But right now, with a very attractive guy on top of her, she was starting to rethink her preconception.

She couldn't stop staring at him. The stranger's hair would have driven anyone's attention to him being star shaped and tricolored with black, red, and golden bangs that spiked to give the impression of a crown. His skin was paler compared to the regular Egyptian, but that didn't keep Mana from noticing the muscles that showed.

He was wearing a black sleeveless shirt, blue pants, and a dark blue lined with some white jacket. He also had a belt for a collar that matched one of the two belts around his pants.

The main accessory Mana noticed was the golden upside down pyramid that depicted an unusual eye picture which hung by a chain. For some reason, it reminded her of Shadi's golden ankh that looked like a key.

But ultimately she felt herself staring into his eyes. Amethyst orbs with flecks blood red gazed at her so resolutely. Eyes that she felt like she knew, but known she had never seen before.

Everything about the stranger screamed familiarity to her. Like a song she knew the melody to, but had forgotten the lyrics.

Strangely enough, she remembered feeling this once before. The day she met Kisara, it was almost as if Mana had known her in another life the way those two had connected.

Now she probably would have continued staring up at the familiar stranger for quite some time if she had been allowed too. However, this was broken by an unusual feeling near her chest which caused her to look at it.

To find that the one of the boy's hand currently over her left breast, fondling it appreciatively.

The boy looked confused for one moment before realizing exactly what was going on as Mana's eyes closed and her head gain a few anime tick marks.

"Uh…wait a minute! I didn't mean to.."

Unfortunately, it was too late.

SMACK!

"YOU PERVERT!"

The teenage boy staggered as he tried to regain his feet, while holding his left cheek with the hand that hadn't been fondling Mana. He fired back as quick as he could.

"It was an accident!"

Mana felt eyebrow raise in disbelief as she got to her knees and scanned for all her items, putting them back in her bag. Sarcasm dripped in her voice like icicles and water.

"Oh really? And I guess running into me was accident too?"

"Yes it was!"

And he was about to say more before his voice suddenly failed him and his expression went from irritated to confused.

"Wait, you can understand me?"

Mana had successfully found all her stuff, with only the white lotus earrings to stuff back inside. She stood up as she did this, afterward running her hand through her hair checking for bumps.

"No I'm saying random things in Japanese for no real reason. Of course I understand you!"

The boy grimaced slightly.

"Sorry, you're the first person I've met in this country that understands Japanese."

Mana sighed as she turned around and faced the boy. She felt compelled to give him an answer.

"That's because I'm visiting Egypt against my will."

His eyebrow lifted questioningly.

"Why is it against your will?"

Mana's expression went deadpanned.

"It's a long story."

"ATEM!"

The boy(Now known as Atem) turned around to find someone who looked like his look alike except for the height and an older man that also resembled him. Both of them had the same worried look in their matching purple eyes.

"Oh Yugi, Grandpa, what took you so long?"

His obvious twin growled slightly.

"You're the one who ran off! Did you have to chase after that pickpocket?"

Atem held up a tattered brown wallet for a moment and handed it to the older man.

"Considering I got Grandpa's wallet back, I'd say everything's okay. Here you go Grandpa."

His grandfather shook his head as he sighed slightly.

"Thank you Atem, but next time try to not throw caution to the wind."

Atem nodded somewhat.

"I'll try."

His grandfather then noticed Mana standing right there.

"Oh hello young miss, may I ask who you are?"

Mana grunted slightly as she pointed her thumb at Atem.

"I'm the unhappy bystander your perverted grandson ran into and fondled."

"ATEM!"

Atem's reply was indignant as his eyes blazed blood red.

"It was an accident!"

Yugi sighed as his twin gave his grandfather an explanation of what happened. He then held his hand out to Mana which she shook.

"I'm sorry about all this. The name is Yugi."

Mana hmmed, scanning her mind.

"Yugi and Atem, where do I feel like I've heard those names before?"

That remark stopped Atem's explanation(in which his grandfather seemed to be nodding in complete understanding like that had happened to him before). Both of the twin's eyes went wide and seemed to become slightly nervous.

Yugi gave an uneasy laugh.

"Well, I don't think we've met before."

Mana shook her head.

"No I guess not."

The boy's grandfather went over to Mana, looking somewhat tired but still smiled.

"Excuse me miss, but could you maybe help us?"

Mana looked at the old man questioningly.

"I just arrived here yesterday and I don't know much about the city, but I'll try. What do you need help with?"

The old man took a map and handed it to Mana who found a place that was circled.

"Our flight got in early and we've been trying to find this hotel, but we've had no luck."

Mana's eyes widened as she noticed the exact place that was circled.

"You're in luck, that's actually the place where I'm staying for my…."

She felt her voice die away as her mind worked a million miles and came to a conclusion. Old guy looking for the hotel where the archaeologists were, twin grandsons, a strangely familiar academis air….

She felt herself point her finger at the old man, slightly shaking.

"Wait…a…minute. Professor Muto?"

Solomon's eyes went wide.

"Yes, but how did you know that?"

Mana held up her pointing finger up, asking for some time.

"Hold on for a sec."

She pulled her cell phone rapidly out of her bag and hurriedly went to her contact list. She found what she was looking for and quick dialed.

She held the phone to her, scanning exactly where she was(right back in front of the fruit stand where her brother had left her).

Finally, after waiting a couple rings, her brother's voice answered.

"_Mana, what's wrong?"_

"Mahad, get your sorry but back here right now."

SHe felt all three of the Muto's eyes go wide, but she paid her complete attention to the conversation she was having on the phone.

"_But there's this…"_

"I don't care if you found the lost city of Atlantis. Get back here right now!"

* * *

"And that's what happened."

Mahad looked at his former employer incredulously as said employer was enjoying a cup of tea quite calmly.

The groups had met up with Mahad and Arthur Hawkins slightly mortified they hadn't picked them up themselves, the three sitting close together at the end of the table. Yugi had also been glomped by Rebecca and was currently giving an easy expression as Rebecca would not let go. Atem and Mana sat directly across from each other, not making any eye contact or conversation, a red imprint of a hand still noticeable on Atem's cheek.

They were currently in a small dining room in the hotel with some of the food they had ordered. The room had a decidedly Arabic appeal. They had decided to meet up for dinner there earlier.

Mahad shook his head.

"You should have called."

Yugi still looked a little uncomfortable, but he managed to keep up with the conversation.

"It's alright. It's just a good thing Mana came along when she did. Why didn't you ever mention to us you had a sister Mahad?"

Atem also joined in with a polite tone, though he still felt a little miffed from the slap.

"I was wondering that too."

Mahad took his turn to look flustered.

"Uhh…well…"

Mana chimed in after she had finished the plate in front of her.

"If it's any consolation, I didn't know you guys knew each other until yesterday. Of course, I've heard of you guys."

After all, who hadn't heard of the twin duelists? Atem and Yugi Muto were currently the reigning world champs, which she remembered after hearing Rebecca and them in a conversation about their duels.

She really needed to stop listening to those obsessed boys at her school. The Mutos were not that impressive.

Though she had to admit Yugi wasn't so bad. Now that she had sat down and some time to look over them, she could see the differences between Yugi and his brother. He didn't have his golden bangs stick up like a crown and his eyes didn't have any red in them. His clothing and accecessories didn't seem to be any different from his brothers except he didn't have the golden pyramid Atem did.

Solomon Muto was also an interesting person, that also gave her familiar feeling. Though not as strong as the one she felt with Atem(which she was currently denying she ever felt). His silver hair was styled exactly like his grandsons and his appearance certainly resembled the boys. His outfit was different. He wore a black bandanna and had on a white shirt, red vest, and tan pants.

She stood up from the table, partly exhausted and partly annoyed as she had a certain headache. She knew was not going to have a goodnight's sleep tonight.

"I'm going to go back upstairs. See you all when we have to leave on the boat in the morning."

With that, she stood up and exited the dinning place. The twins and Rebecca looked after her questioningly. Solomon turned back to Mahad in the same manner.

"Is she okay?"

Professor Hawkins nodded.

"She doesn't seem to be like the cheerful mischievous little sister who pranked you to high hell you described."

The teens and preteen looked incredibly interested at the description as they stared at the subject's older brother.

Mahad sighed tiredly.

"It's a long story. Let's just say my sister and I aren't on the best of terms at the moment. Coming here is sort of adding gas to the flame."

Rebecca bounded up, taking Yugi with her.

"Well excuse me, but I've been waiting for a duel and I'm not going to wait any long. I'll come back to the room when I'm done. Come on Yugi poo!"

She dragged Yugi along, who shot a "SAVE ME!" look to his brother.

To which Atem mouthed "No" and pulled out a camera and took a picture.

Yugi's panicked expression was the last thing Atem saw of his brother. He knew what was going through his mind.

_If Tea were to see those pictures…._

He felt himself smirk evily. At least he had blackmail to keep Yugi from telling Tristan and Joey about the misunderstanding. Not to mention their mother. That would be bad.

The two older gentlemen then got into a debate about the arrangements for the riverboat and then asked about the other's family(their grandkids mostly).

Mahad scooted closer to Atem who seemed to be in a slightly bad mood.

"Sorry my sister smacked you."

"I suppose I deserved it, but it was a an accident."

"I know. I'm sorry I never told you guys about her."

Atem looked at Mahad's apologizing look and gave a small smile.

"There's nothing to forgive. Still you could have told us you had a _really_ hot sister."

Mahad smiled before comprehending the full statement.

"I know…WAIT, what?!"

Atem smacked his hand over his mouth.

_Oops._

* * *

"You fools."

The three figure cloaked in dark robes bowed even more at the condescending tone. They were currently in a dark stone walled room with only some torches illuminating the room.

In front of them, was another dark cloaked figure seated on a stone throne. He was playing with a golden scepter with things that resembled wings at the top and the Millennium symbol as a focal point. Bleach blonde hair was barely peeking out of the hood. He was shorter than the figures, obviously younger than his subordinates.

He continued as the torches flickered and two other figures had slipped in to the room, unnoticed by the others.

"I told you specifically to follow and observe, not to chase after one of them."

One of the figures made a bold attempt and raised his head.

"But sir.."

"BUT NOTHING."

The figure bowed head once more, but behind the countenance of humility lay a bitter resentment at taking orders from a mere boy in comparison to himself.

The boss with the rod had waved his hand, fixing a particularly lethal stare in his lavender eyes. As if knowing what the fool's sentiments were exactly.

"You are dismissed. Don't let me see you again anytime soon."

The three nodded once more, getting out of the room without noticing the two in the back.

The two then approached the figure on the stone throne. One was dressed in the same dark robe as his master and the other servants were, but was quite taller than the others.

The other was dressed in white and had a decidedly feminine figure. She donned an elaborate golden headdress and a white veil that hid her face, but not her calm Nile blue eyes. She also possessed a golden necklace that had the same eye symbol as the rod had.

The first one spoke as the other dark cloaked one sighed.

"Master Marik, we're ready for the ambush tomorrow night."

The blonde grunted as he threw back his hood, to reveal a lot more blonde hair and light brown skin along with a sour expression on his face.

"Odion, how many times must I tell you to drop the Master thing?"

Odion ducked his head in a nod.

"My apologies."

"Don't be. Ishizu, have you had any other visions?"

His sister shook her head.

"No, it seems as if I can't see anything to do with the ambush. It seems that there are people that possess the Millennium Items on this expedition."

Marik scowled.

"We'll try and retrieve the Items if we can, but remember our focus is to make sure they never reach the Temple.

"This is one duty of the Tombkeepers that I intend to fulfill."

* * *

**V.E.: So you can probably guess I put the Tombkeepers in place of the Megai in this fic. Also that there is going to be a boat ride. I'll introduce Pegasus and Kaiba next chapter, but I think I'll be doing two chapters of BEC after this along with a oneshot maybe.**

**To anyone who don't know already, I've posted a new oneshot. Check it out. **

**Please review and give me some constructive criticism. I've learned that just compliments drain me.**

**Until the next chapter then. **


	6. All Aboard and Introductions

**V.E.: Well, it's been while since I've updated this story! And I've been looking forward to the boat ride. I'm going to give somewhat of a modern feel to this story, but most of this I am just taking from The Mummy.**

**Once again, I am putting in a flash back scene. I need to warn you I will probably use a lot of these in this story, but I feel it's necessary.**

* * *

_The bazaar was crowded, the sounds of hawkers and buyers hung in the air. Despite the obvious evidence of many people, none of them were distinguishable. They were all shadowed just like all the others of this dream world._

_Despite this visual obscuring, the other senses were excited. The scents of the spices and cooked bread wafted through the air. The undeniably hot air of the sun beamed down on the people mercilessly. You could almost taste the dust and sand of this desert in your mouth. _

_And the focus of this memory set upon two figures, trying to blend into the crowd but failing in the eyes of the observer. _

_The first of the two was the elder and definitely male. Though his figure was shadowed, the royal purple eyes could not be obscured and he made many movements to make sure his hood would stay on and his hair would not be discovered. A gleam of golden light seemed to glow through his cloak, but no one seemed to notice it._

_His companion was more slender, a feminine figure definitely, but she didn't carry herself as one who avoids being seen. The bounce in her step indicated she was perfectly happy and her emerald eyes took everything in around her._

_Her voice was no different than any of these things, happy and bright._

"_See! I told you it was good idea!"_

_Her companion gave a small smile._

"_I had forgotten how much fun this was. When was the last time we did this again?"_

_She smiled in a way that made it seem like she was laughing._

"_Almost three years ago. We wanted to sneak out and see how people celebrated the festival and the two of us got separated.."_

_He returned the smile with a laugh of his own._

"_And then I ended up getting chased because a merchant thought I was a thief! Oh, I don't know who was madder, my father or Mahad?"_

_Her answer was firm and decisive._

"_Definitely Mahad. After your dad yelled, he winked at us, remember? Mahad shook his fist and shut me in my room for almost two days without any food!"_

_His voice became quieter and more subdued. It was always painful to remember those days._

"_That's right, that was before my father's sickness became more apparent. Before…."_

_She drew closer to her friend laying her hand on his shoulder in a comforting gesture. For a moment, no words were said. They had been through much and knew each other better than most. Her hand moved near the purple eyes and brushed a single tear out of his eye._

_And then for a moment, the air seemed to change. It was not that of close friends, it seemed almost like the form of two lovers. The two stared at each other in a way they wouldn't have in the court, where everyone could see. Especially each other._

_Then quietly as the moment came, it ended. The male guided her hand away from his face, gratitude shining in his eyes._

"_Thank you Mana."_

_She withdrew her hand, her voice gentle. For a couple of moments, she thought about how best to approach the question she wanted to ask._

"_Um Pharaoh..I mean.."_

_He sighed exasperated._

"_Mana, how many times do I have to tell you? When we're alone, we can talk like we used to. Without the formal stuff."_

_She nodded._

"_Right. Well, I didn't just ask you to play hooky with me today just for fun."_

_He smiled, almost smirking._

"_Really? I didn't even know I __**had**__ a choice."_

_She pouted slightly._

"_Hey! I'm trying to be serious for once! The least you could do is listen."_

"_My apologies Mana. What is it you wanted to talk about?"_

"_Actually, that's what I was going to ask you."_

_Though it couldn't be seen, his eyebrow lifted quizzically. He had no idea what she was talking about, though he felt he should._

"_What do you mean?"_

"_Are you alright? Recently, you've been avoiding me. Don't deny it!" she added as he started to make a reply._

"_You've been more quiet than usual. It's been awhile since you've become Pharaoh, so I know that's not it. So tell me; what's been bothering you?"_

_He flinched. So she had noticed. He should have known._

"_Nothing's wrong."_

"_Prince?"_

"_Yes?"_

"_How long have been we friends?"_

_He pretended to consider the question for a moment._

"_Longer than I can remember?"_

"_That means that I know when you're telling the truth and when you're faking it. So spill."_

_He sighed._

"_I'm not getting out of this, am I?"_

"_Nope."_

_He fidgeted, praying to any Egyptian god that would hear him for something to happen, that the two of them wouldn't have this conversation. His eyes looked for such miracle. Finally, he decided to open his mouth once more._

"_Well…you see…"_

_And in that moment, his eyes wandered and found themselves fixated at a group people surrounded around something._

"_What's going on over there?"_

"_Huh? Oh don't think you're going to trick me with that old…"_

"_No Mana, this isn't a trick. Look."_

_He pointed his hand to the crowd. She followed his direction and saw what he meant._

"_Oh. You're right."_

"_Let's get a closer look."_

_She nodded and the two edged themselves closer to the crowd. It was mostly comprised of middle aged men, with angry expressions on the other wise indistinguishable faces. Finally, the two got to the middle and what they saw surprised the both of them._

_Unlike the rest of the people in this vision, this figure glowed with a white light all over her. Though like the golden light under the Prince's disguise, no one saw it. Her hair was not perceived as dark, it was almost snow white. Her skin also had a fair appearance. _

_But the figure was collapsed on the ground as the men in the crowd started to throw stones at the almost woman. No way to defend herself and no one to help her._

_Before she knew what she was doing, the shadowed girl surged forward to protect the strange looking girl. She knelt on the ground, shaking the unconscious girl slightly. In that time, the stones had stopped, the specters confused at what she was doing._

"_Are you alright? Can you hear me?"_

_A soft grunt was heard, but no movement was made to answer her questions._

_Her friend pushed forward to her._

"_Mana, what are you doing?"_

_She shot back a reply._

"_What do you think I'm doing?!"_

_One of the men in the crowd spoke up._

"_Hey girl, get out of the way! That thing isn't worth your time."_

_This didn't have the intended effect. In fact, it stirred a fire within her that had almost snuffed out completely. Memories of her own bad treatment, burst in her mind._

"_Thing?! She's a person, not an it!"_

"_You're defending that witch!?"_

"_How is she a witch?"_

_Another man from the crowd stepped forward._

"_Just look at her! It's just unnatural!"_

_Her friend took a step closer to both girls, challenging the man._

"_If you're just picking on her because of her looks, that's no reason at all! Has she done anything wrong?"_

"_Don't act so high and mighty shrimp!"_

_His eyes blazed in anger(he is kind of sensitive about his height)._

"_What did you call me?!"_

"_You heard me! You think we care what you think! Who do you think you are, the pharaoh?"_

**(AU: Cue irony.)**

_This call aroused the crowd back and the stones began to fly. The disguised prince blocked his face with his hands as Mana still knelt beside the girl, but she also covered her as well as herself._

_This might have turned out even uglier, had it not been for the commanding shout that stopped them all straight._

"_WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!"_

_The two teenagers froze. They both knew who that voice belonged to._

_The crowd let the new person through. He was dressed in the revelry expected of a priest of Egypt, including a rather unusual blue hat._

**(AN: I've always found Priest Seto's hat unusual, but that's just me.) **

_But just like everyone else in this vision, his face couldn't be seen. The only thing visible was the golden rod with the Millennium symbol on it which included some wing like things, and the deep determined blue eyes._

_The crowd bowed as they realized exactly who was among them. Or maybe it was more for the many guards he brought with him._

_But as the priest glanced among the crowd, his gaze settled on the two next to the strange girl. _

_He strode right up to the disguised royal and gave him an even look._

"_Pharaoh?"_

_He cringed at the tone of his priest's voice, calm with an undercurrent of anger._

"_Yes Seto?"_

"_Could you please explain to me what you are doing here, outside the palace, in that ridiculous disguise?!"_

_The pharaoh gulped and finally let the hood slip of his head, showing his multicolored pointy hair in all its glory._

_This elicited a gasp from the crowd. And the instinct to bow harder and hope the pharaoh wouldn't punish too harshly._

_The priest was not finished._

"_I knew there was something funny about the way you called in sick. You were in perfect health at dinner last night."_

_He glanced next to the royal and saw the apprentice magician cringing, not even noticing the strange girl next to her._

"_I suppose this was your idea?"_

_She gave an uneasy chuckle._

"_I thought so. Now what have two gotten yourselves into here?"_

_The pharaoh stopped him with his own question as he realized something._

"_Well….wait a minute. What am I doing here, what are you doing here? I thought you were going to meet from the ambassador from Hatti today in my place?"_

_This stumbled his priest for a moment, but he eventually came back._

"_Well..I…um. Don't turn the tables on me, you're the one faked the cold which required me to do that meeting!"_

"_That still leaves the question what you're doing here. Well?"_

_Fortunately for him, another shadowed figure came forward to get off the topic. His head was bald as a stone, his eyes were pupil less, and he held a golden looking ankh in his hand._

"_Enough, let us return to the palace and…"_

_At that moment, the ankh in the other man's hand started to glow and pushed forward towards the pale girl._

"_What's this?!"_

_The other three wondered the same thing as the golden item glowed brighter than they had ever seen it before._

_The pupil less man couldn't believe he was seeing. The pale white presence, the roar of a dragon, the sheer energy emulating from her._

_He almost screamed as collapsed. The other priest came to his aid._

"_Shada, what is it?"_

"_I've never felt anything like it. That girl's ka, it's stronger than anything."_

"_Really?"_

_The priest stood up and for the first time, really looked at the girl beside the apprentice. His face seemed calm, but his eyes betrayed shock._

"_That girl!"_

_The pharaoh nodded to his priest._

"_I know. That is why the crowd was gathered. They were about to stone her."_

_The man with the key responded._

"_And you got involved?"_

_He grimaced as his best friend burst forth indignantly._

"_Hey it's not his fault! I'm the one who asked him to come out today and I was the one who intervened!"_

_Her friend would not let this pass._

"_That's enough Mana!"_

_Then he turned his gaze upon the first priest, who was silent. He was surprised at the strangely guarded look on his face._

_He voiced his concerns._

"_Seto, what is the matter?"_

_The priest was startled, his eyes glancing to him and the girl._

"_I….it's…"_

_His king waited on an answer._

"_My apologies my Pharaoh. For a moment I thought that…..never mind."_

_It wasn't the answer he was looking for, but there would be time to press his companion later._

"_All right."_

_He turned his direction to the guards._

"_Guards, the girl comes with us. When she wakes up, give her all the food and water she wants!"_

"_Yes sir!"_

_Then the king turned his gaze at the unfortunate crowd._

"_And as for the rest of you, leave at once! Before I change my mind and place all of you in the prison!"_

_Needless to say, the crowd quickly dispersed after that statement._

_One of the guards picked up the girl, and the other girl followed close next to her, unwilling to take her eyes off of her._

_The man with the ankh came closer to his king._

"_Is this really a good idea? Bringing her with us?"_

"_Well, we can't just leave her here. Especially if she is as powerful as you say she is."_

_The man nodded his head._

"_I suppose you are right."_

_The pharaoh turned his gaze to the two girls. At first it stayed on the pale girl, but flickered back to his friend. His thoughts unreadable. Relieved and disappointed at avoiding the conversation the two almost had._

* * *

"MANA!"

Mana blinked back to Mahad, who was obviously very annoyed at trying to get her attention.

"What is it?"

"You phased out again! Are you getting heat stroke or something?"

She shook her head and sighed.

"I'm fine Mahad. You don't need to baby me!"

"Excuse me if I care about you!"

With that, he turned away in a huff.

Atem Muto decided to cheer his friend up.

"I suppose an empty mind has no worries."

Mana retaliated with a kick in his shin.

The comment did not go unnoticed by the others. Rebecca shot the elder a Muto a look as she was clinging to the younger Muto's side.(Who obviously wasn't that comfortable with this arrangement).

"Atem! That's rude!"

Her grandfather hushed them all.

"Now, now. It's time we all board. Watch your step!"

They did watch their step as they went through the crowded harbor. Despite the noise and other distractions, they found the grand looking boat, christened _The Queen of the Nile_. A lot people began to board and the group was about to before they caught sight of a certain individual.

"Come on now people! Egyptian ruins don't uncover themselves!"

The speaker was a man that appeared to be in his mid-twenties, with snow white hair that covered one of his eyes. He usually wore a crimson business suit, but today he had casual pants and a yellowish white archaeology shirt. He didn't have his hat on then, that would come later.

Mahad's eyes widened as he recognized the man.

"That's Maximilian Pegasus. What's he doing here?"

Mana rolled her eyes.

"Didn't you say Industrial Illusions is financing the expedition?"

Solomon nodded.

"True, but it's still a little unusual to see the president here."

"Out of my way!"

A man bumped towards them and almost got past them before turning around.

Seto Kaiba had on his signature trench coat and was rolling his bag towards the boat. His eyes settled on Mahad.

"Kurosaki."

Mahad responded with equal dislike.

"Kaiba."

He grunted before turning his attention to the Muto siblings.

"Where's the cheerleaders?"

Atem obviously took some offense to that.

"Kaiba!"

Yugi tried to diffuse the uneasy tension between the two.

"Nice to see you too Kaiba. Joey has two summer jobs, Tristan went on vacation, and Tea has a summer dance class if you want to know."

"I didn't. Now if you'll excuse me."

He pushed through the crowed. Pegasus' eyes lit up on seeing him, his voice exuberant as ever.

"Kaiba boy, what a pleasant surprise! What are you doing here?"

Kaiba's response was gruff as ever as he pushed pass the girly CEO onto the boat.

"Protecting my investment, what does it look like?"

Mana took in the scene with an even face.

"Wow, someone who wants to be here even less than I do."

"YUGI! ATEM! OVER HERE!"

The group turned around to find a pair of twin coming over. The first was the more enthusiastic one with wide eyes and a smile, obviously glad at seeing them. The second was more reserved, but was right next to his twin. Much like Yugi and Atem, there were almost no distinguishable features that told the two apart from each other.

The only difference was the second one's hair was wilder and he had a gleaming golden ring pendant, that for some reason struck a chord in Mana's mind.

Yugi also lit up at seeing them.

"Ryou! Bakura! Good to see you! I thought we wouldn't see you until the Regionals in September."

The more expressive twin, Ryou, smiled softly.

"Well, our father had some frequent flyer miles and decided it would be a great opportunity for us to come to Egypt to see how he worked this summer. Unfortunately, he got into a little accident."

Bakura grunted. His response wasn't as polite as his twin's.

"He got into a fight with one of the director's in the Egyptian antiquities department. Long story short, he's currently being treated for a broken nose and can't come for another week at least because of the legality issues."

Atem smirked.

"You know, I expect that story more out of you Bakura."

Bakura didn't back down.

"Ha ha. Very funny your highness. I want a duel before we get to the site."

"You're on."

Then Bakura looked at Mahad and Mana.

"Hello annoying stiff in the mud. Who's the pretty girl next to you?"

Mana muffled her laughter as her brother didn't take kindly to the comment.

"Hello Bakura. Still shoplifting?"

Bakura smirked.

"That was never proven Kurosaki. And you didn't answer my question."

Mana smiled.

"I'm Mana and I'm the annoying stick in the mud's sister."

Ryou was surprised.

"Mahad, you never said you had a sister."

Yugi nodded in confirmation.

"We didn't know until yesterday."

Bakura wasn't as surprised.

"Well, they don't look like siblings. You must get the good looking genes."

Mana smiled, with a small laugh.

"Thank you."

If one looked at Mahad and Atem's face, both had a rather sour expression at what was going on.

Yugi was the only one saw what was going on. He managed to get out of Mana's grip and pushed them towards the boat.

"Well, let's get on, shall we?"

As the two were pushed forward, Mana lingered behind with Bakura and Ryou. For a moment she thought something moved on the ships behind the crates. A moment later, nothing happened so she decided to brush it off.

_There's nothing wrong Mana. Nothing is going to happen._

She didn't know that behind those crates were two obvious obnoxious stowaways. And that several cloaked figures watched the boat and it's gathering in the distance.

* * *

**V.E.: Wow, that flashback took up more than I expected it to. So I'm going to cut this short today. I'll get more to the boat ride next time.**

**I actually didn't expect to get this out until Friday, but yesterday I just got the need to write this. I guess most of my problem with writer's block is just not writing. I don't need to write a specific story, I just need to write until something comes to me.**

**Expect a oneshot next.**

**Review please. It's been awhile.**


	7. Cruise on the River Nile

**V.E.: Ahh, the boat ride. The tranquil journey down the Nile before everything bursts into flames. One of my favorite parts of the movie. And that's not just because it's one of the parts of the movie I actually watched.**

**Okay maybe that is it a little. I'm currently going through the whole movie again. But I know that this isn't going to be an exact copy of the movie. And this is going to be divided into two chapters, when it's smooth sailing and when everything goes to pieces. **

**It took some brainstorming, but here we are.**

* * *

Pegasus laid the cards down on table. Ace high straight.

"I win again!"

His fellow players gasped in disbelief.

"Impossible! That's the fifth time in a row you've won!"

"Hey mister big shot, how are you cheating?"

Pegasus' gleeful expression didn't change as he answered. He unconsciously brushed his hand over the hair that covered one of his eyes. At least, that's what most people would have thought.

"I never cheat. Let's just say I'm _gifted _at reading people. Anyone want to go double or nothing?"

Atem Muto smirked as he watched the hapless fools gamble what was left of their money with the flamboyant CEO and while smart ones finally caught on and bowed out.

His grandfather would have found the whole exchange amusing, but he was currently checking over their luggage and other things they had brought. Professor Hawkins was currently having a game with Rebecca, leaving Yugi out of her death like hugs for a while to get Ryou up to date on what had been going on. Bakura was at a table a few feet away eating his steak with the younger of the two twins, observing his Millennium Ring with an irritated expression on his face.

It was currently evening and the majority of the expedition were gathered on the deck, enjoying the serene evening on the water. Or gambling and drinking.

Being too young to enjoy the later, Atem was just observing them. He had to admit, these archaeologists were somewhat fools. He remembered how Kaiba had told him how Pegasus defeated the former American Duel Monsters Champion Bandit Keith, without even having to duel him. He was actually kind of glad he never had to duel Pegasus.

Though, Atem did wonder why on earth Pegasus was here. What possessed him to go on this expedition when he must have had a bunch of different things he could doing? He knew for a fact Kaiba would never set foot within a million miles of a place that had no internet connection or electricity like the desert they were about to head through.

Speaking of the dour CEO, Seto Kaiba currently had his arms folded as he leaned back on a crate. Looking as if he would like to be anywhere in the world other than here.

Atem walked over and did exactly as the CEO had done.

"So what are you really doing here?"

Seto's eyes rolled over to the older and more confidant Muto.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't try and fool me. After all the times you've said the past is not important, I find it hard to believe that you would finance a archaeology dig. So I repeat, what are you doing?"

Seto sighed.

"If you must know, it was Pegasus who brought me into this deal. He came to my office two months ago and wouldn't leave me alone until I helped finance this expedition. Believe me, I can think of a bunch of better things to do with my money."

Atem still looked at his dueling rival skeptically.

"That still doesn't explain what you are doing here."

Kaiba grimaced.

"Well a little after that, Mokuba _insisted _that I needed a vacation. Away from anything to do with Kaiba Corp, so staying Japan was not an option."

Atem gaffed trying to hold in a laugh.

"So your little brother kicked you out of your own company?!"

Seto's glare went up ten notches.

"_VACATION _Muto! Anyway, have you noticed something unusual?"

Atem had no idea where Seto was going with this.

"What do you mean?"

Seto's head jerked toward the sides of some of the people onboard. Most if not all carried some firearm of sorts.

"I mean, for an archaeological expedition, there seems to be a lot of guns. What on earth are those doing here? Don't tell me you morons actually believe in those Egyptian curses."

"That has nothing to do with it."

Both duelists turned their attention to find Mahad right next to them, a thoughtful expression on his face.

His face changed to have some slight disgust as he realized who the person he was answering was.

"Although, it would certainly do you some good to listen to those things."

Seto rolled his eyes in response.

"Blah, blah, blah. Unless it's something you can actually prove, I don't want to hear it."

Mahad sighed.

"One of these days, that attitude of yours is going to kick you in your soft spot. And I will be there to laugh maniacally about it and say 'I told you so.'."

Atem tried to diffuse the tension for once(that was Yugi's job, he was the one who usually caused the tension and disaster).

"Calm down. Mahad, you were talking about the guns."

Mahad remembered and stopped his hostilities towards Kaiba(for the moment).

"Right. Well, in any expedition there is always a chance of trouble with desert tribes. Plus, there are people who disagree with Egyptian artifacts housed in places other than Egypt and have resulted to using terrorism. The guns are just protection."

Atem wasn't fooled by the calm air Mahad was projecting.

"Mahad, you're not comfortable with this at all."

Mahad grimaced.

"Well, it's better to be safe than sorry. In case you hadn't noticed, foreigners aren't looked upon too kindly here."

RING!

Mahad reached into his pocket and checked his phone. A disgusted expression twisted on his face.

Kaiba observed the expression.

"What's wrong Kurozaki? Mix up with the Japanese and Korean antiquities back at your museum?"

"Worse, my uncle. I need to take this. Atem, could you look for Mana for me?"

Atem sighed.

"Sure."

"Thanks."

With that, Mahad pressed a button and briskly walked away. As if sensing he was probably going to be raising his volume and didn't want people to hear.

Seto looked surprised as he watched Mahad leave.

"I heard you talk about it earlier, but I just couldn't believe it. Kurozaki has a sister? What's she doing here?"

Atem shrugged. That was actually a very good question. What was she doing here?

"I wonder that myself."

"Anything like him?"

Atem considered it for a moment.

"To be honest, they don't really resemble each other."

Seto 'hmphed.'

"Well, at least that's in her favor."

Atem's voice almost raised to a dangerous level.

"_Kaiba_…"

"Yeah, yeah. Just so you know, I want a duel before this miserable _vacation _is over."

And with that, Kaiba stalked off to do who knows what. Probably to try and get an internet connection and check Kaiba Corp's stocks.

Atem shook his head and sighed. Kaiba never changed, not that he had expected him to.

_He'll have to get in line after Bakura. Well, might as well go find Mana. And hope she's not in a smacking mood._

He scanned the ship and then recalled her going over to the side a while ago. He turned the corner and saw the boxes along with the animals away from where everyone else could see or smell them.

Mana was seated at a table near the camels, sketching something down and not paying attention to anything else.

So much, that she didn't hear Atem come near and sit down. At least, that's what he thought.

"Do you have to come and bother me?"

Atem shot her a leveled look.

"It's a boat ride. They encourage us to wander around as long as it's not near the engine stuff. I think I can come and go as I please."

"What are you doing?"

"Your brother wanted me to look for you."

Mana didn't take her eyes of the sketchbook.

"Whatever. If Mahad wants to talk to me, he can find me himself."

Atem felt his mouth get the better of him(AGAIN).

"What's your problem?"

That got her to look up, with an incredibly irritated look on her face.

"Excuse me?"

"Mahad is concerned about you and you just blow him off. He's one of my best friends. I don't know what's going on, but you shouldn't treat your brother like that!"

Mana's eyes narrowed.

"What makes you think you have the right to tell me what to do? You don't know anything about me and my brother. You didn't even know I existed until yesterday."

Atem sighed.

"Alright, then help me understand. You said you're here against your will. Explain that."

Mana sighed.

"That's pretty straightforward. I'm here because Mahad couldn't leave me Japan on my own. Of all the place we had to go…"

Atem felt one of his eyebrows raise.

"You don't like Egypt?"

Mana shot him a leveled look.

"Would you like Ancient Egypt, if that is all your older brother would ever talk about? And he wouldn't stop unless you stopped him? The first time my brother tried to talk about mummification, I had to sneak a snake down his back to make him shut up. I was grounded for a week."

Atem considered her words.

"Point taken, I suppose."

Mana suddenly became unsure.

"And…well.."

Atem's curiosity was aroused by Mana's response.

"Well?"

"It's like…don't you get this feeling? That something bad is going to happen? I mean, I don't like it here, but I just feel like doing this is wrong."

"Wrong?" Atem echoed.

Mana fidgeted, debating with herself to tell or not to tell. Finally, she decided he didn't know her well enough to be trusted the full details.

"Maybe I'm just overreacting."

Her eyes wandered down to his pyramid pendant. For some reason, when she looked him(not that she did it often) she found herself drawn to it. Almost like her eyes going to Bakura's Millennium Ring. Like it was important to her and she was supposed to watch it.

Then she noticed a glint of silver right by it, but that went under Atem's shirt.

Mana felt herself almost redden. She did not want to see that(at least that's what she told herself).

She tried to get back to a conversation. She did feel a little sorry for the smack and he was kind of cute.

"So what do you think about the curses?"

"You believe in that stuff?"

Mana shrugged.

"I don't know, but I have to admit there feels like there's something more than meets the eye that's going on. I mean, some of the people here, talk in hushed tones like they're scared of something."

Atem hmmed.

"Well I haven't noticed that, but I feel like that too. Trust me when I say I've seen too many things I can't explain."

Sarcasm crept into Mana's voice.

"That sounds so reassuring."

"It wasn't supposed to be."

Mana got up with a sigh.

"I'll go find my brother. Do whatever you want."

Atem watched her leave.

_She's interesting to say the least. Did she really put a snake down Mahad's shirt? Still, kind of cute._

However, this train of thought was disturbed by rustling over by the crates near Atem. He was started and listened.

"_Keep it down!"_

"_That's my foot!"_

Atem felt his eyes roll. He knew those annoying voices, though he wished he didn't.

He walked right over and grabbed the two out into the open, slamming them against the railing. One false move and they'd go over board.

They were both short, around his brother Yugi's height. The first had aqua blue hair and big yellow glasses with a bug on them wearing a green jacket and black shorts. The second had brown hair with a hint of light purple covered by a red hat, who also had a green jacket on which was darker.

Atem felt his patience dwindle.

"Weevil Underwood and Rex Raptor. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't throw you off this boat."

Weevil answered first.

"You wouldn't dare!"

Atem's glare intensified which left the lesser duelist cringing.

"Considering what you did to my grandfather's Exodia cards on the boat to Duelist Kingdom, I'd say that'd make us even. Joey almost got hypothermia for that!"

Weevil gathered his courage and shot a response.

"I didn't tell Wheeler to go swimming for them. That was his own stupid move!"

Rex Raptor was still a little nervous.

"Why would I do go over? I had nothing to do with that!"

Atem tightened his grip on the fools.

"No, you'd just go over because of proxy. And I really just don't like you."

He left them his choke hold for a minute before releasing them for them to catch their breaths. Which they needed because they were gasping like they had run a marathon. Atem obviously didn't know his own strength.

"So what are you two dweebs doing here? You're the last people I would expect to be interested in Ancient Egypt. You strike more as the Insect and Dinosaur exhibit types."

Weevil shot his duelist competitor a glare after successfully recovering air wise.

"Shows what you know. You're not fooling us."

Atem wasn't impressed with the self importance Weevil assigned himself.

"What are you talking about?"

Rex Raptor burst indignantly.

"Don't play us. We know you're searching for the Egyptian God Cards! Makes sense that you'd go after the cards that are stronger than Exodia."

Atem felt his curiosity increase.

"Stronger than Exodia?"

Rex continued even though his partner was making gestures at him to stop. Weevil had obviously realized that Muto didn't know anything.

"Well, of course! Pegasus himself designed the cards and apparently thought they were too powerful for anyone to handle. Why else is he on this expedition? To check up on the God Cards! When we heard about it, we just had to come here."

Weevil smacked his hand around his somewhat best friend's mouth.

"Don't tell him that you fool!"

Atem considered the information.

_Considering that it comes from these two, makes this stuff questionable. However, Weevil is a horrible actor and he didn't want to me to know. Could Pegasus really be here because of that? He doesn't strike me as that serious the way he's acting. Then again, stranger things have happened. _

Rex finally got Weevil's mouth off him.

"Why didn't you stop me earlier?"

"I was trying to you dino brain!"

Rex shrugged then got an idea.

"Hey, want to go hide out in that girl Mana's room? That way we'd see her change."

In less than three seconds(as much time as it took to draw a card from a duel deck), the two imbeciles were grabbed and pushed over the railing.

Atem called out to them as he heard them splash, somewhat satisfied of his work.

"Goodbye you poor excuses of duelists."

Atem smacked his hands, as if done with something messy. He turned to find something he hadn't noticed before.

A pair of what seemed to be wet footprints leading inside the boat.

* * *

"AND DON'T CALL ME AGAIN!"

Mahad shut off the phone before his uncle could make a response. He sighed, dealing with his uncle always tested his limits of patience.

He picked up his notebook off the bed along with the pen to its side, walking to the mirror as he wrote. He made a couple more notes on the translation on the map's inscriptions. Still, he wanted to make his own notes on the hieroglyphics and he wouldn't until he saw them himself.

The call with his uncle made him even more determined. Hakim had never approved of his nephew's career choice and never failed to make some joke when they met.

The book dropped to the floor and Mahad sighed. This wasn't the first time he had dropped it when he was in a mad writing mood.

He stooped down to pick it up and then returned back standing to almost scream(which he would deny he ever felt to do).

A veiled figure in white was right behind him. Before he could make a sound, it turned him around and held a knife to his throat. The voice low and guttal, disguised.

"Where is the Map?"

"Huh?!"

"Where are the Items?"

* * *

**V.E.: And that's all for today folks. After this I'm updating BEC or doing a oneshot.**

**I don't like Weevil and Rex. They teamed up with Dartz, I can see them becoming Aknadin's toadies.**

**Well, the boat burns down in the next chapter, but until then.**

**Please review.**


	8. Abandon Ship

**V.E.: There is something about burning something down that is just so appealing. Even so, this is a pretty difficult chapter. I'm not good with fight scenes or action(I don't think want to know how my dueling scenes would go). I'm going to have to turn to the movie once more. But like I said, this is not going an exact copy.**

**For example, Mana is not going to take on Evie's role as translator and victim of the mummy. That role is divided between two people, one of which is currently in the story and the other will formally come in later. Her role is a little more complex.**

**However, that's all I'm going to say about that at the moment.**

* * *

Here's a riddle to be answered: How does a perfect evening cruise on the Nile turn into a complete disaster which will go up in flames?

Answer to the situation in question: a desert tribe sneaks aboard the ship and starts attacking people. The ultimate result to this in any occasion is complete pandemonium.

"AAAHHHH!"

The screams were heard and abounded on deck as the dark cloaked figures with strange insignias on their hoods pulled out their guns and knives. As the shots of the guns rang out, the majority of the group on deck ran away to grab last minute things before abandoning ship. Some people didn't even think that far and just jumped into the water.

However, not every one of the people on deck were smart sane cowards.

A dark cloaked figure tried to sneak up a white haired young man with his brother right beside him, but was unfortunately thrown overboard by said person before he could even get close.

This caused Bakura to in pleasure sigh before hitting a man out cold right behind him.

"Oh it's been too long since I've been in a good fight!"

Ryou cringed at the overly familiar way his older twin was dealing with the fighting.

"Bakura, that's a little mean."

Bakura gave an even look at this brother after giving one figure a broken nose, the sounds of bullets and screams still in the air.

"Given the situation, little brother, I say I can be as mean as I want."

"BAKURA!"

This shout belonged to the other pair of twins, more specifically to Yugi as the spiky tricolor haired twins came over. This gave some relief to Bakura as it was evidenced quite quickly that Atem could handle himself in a fight, particularly by the way he managed to also toss a man over board. The younger two were more of the rational thinking sort, plus they lacked muscles so them in a fight was not a good idea(plus their older brothers would have never allowed them to be in any danger intentionally).

Bakura nodded his head in acknowledgment.

"Not bad 'your highness.' I could have used you a couple of months ago."

Ryou looked at his twin reprovingly.

"You weren't supposed to be in that bar in the first place Bakura!"

Yugi's eyes went round.

"You got into a bar fight!"

Atem interrupted after giving one man a kick in the family jewels(which caused the man to drop to the floor in pain).

"Yugi, I don't think this is the time to discuss Bakura's destructive nature."

Aside from this group, there were several other individuals doing quite well. Pegasus wasn't even touched as his body guard Chemo cleared him a path to the lifeboats. A couple of the archaeologists had taken cover behind tables, as they got into a gun fight with dark figures.

However before they could consider their surroundings further, one of the dark figures(taller than the others) yelled to the other figures and pointed to the golden looking things hanging around Atem and Bakura's necks. Which caused everyone to look at them.

Atem spoke to his coconspirator in a low voice.

"What is he saying?"

Bakura shook his head.

"I don't know, but I doubt it's going to be any good for us."

Atem nodded as he grabbed his twin as Bakura did the same.

"Agreed. Run!"

The two broke out into a fast sprint, dodging any person that came their way.

One such figure almost got them, but was brought down by none other than Seto Kaiba, who looked rather annoyed at dealing with such filth.

"Well, at least this vacation isn't totally boring. Life boats?"

The four nodded in affirmation and made their way over. Punching and dodging as they went.

Finally they got over to the sides with the lifeboats(which were quickly filling up), one of which was commandeered by Professor Hawkins and Solomon Muto. Rebecca was just about to get in as she spotted Yugi and glomped him.

"Oh Yugi poo, I'm so glad you're okay."

Though touched by her concern, Yugi wished she could let go as she was tight and it didn't help him from the snickers of both his twin and Bakura.

Finally she did let go, but not before looking around as if searching for something.

"Where's Mana and Mahad?"

This caused Atem to look surprised.

"You mean they're not with you?"

Professor Hawkins shook his head.

"We thought they were with you."

Atem considered things for a moment, thinking out loud before coming to a conclussion.

"Mana said she was going to find Mahad. If there was anywhere he would be, he'd be in his….damn it!"

Atem quickly darted away and called back to his brother.

"You guys stay here, I'll get them!"

* * *

It was the strangest position Mahad had ever been in, including that crazy spring break before graduation(which he tried very hard not to think about).

With a knife to his throat and clear blue eyes staring at him intently, Mahad had to wonder how he got into this situation.

Yet there was something about those eyes that were not quite right in this case. Once again, he felt the feeling of familiarity wash over him as the Nile blue orbs examined his face. He could have sworn for a moment, by the expression, that the person felt the same way.

The eyes below the golden headdress with a familiar looking eye darted toward the notebook Mahad had in his hand, his entire notes on Egypt he had been writing in for years. A hand flashed and grabbed it.

Mahad made a move to show his displeasure.

"Hey that's mine!"

This do not stop the white cloaked figure from using their other hand to keep the dagger pointed at Mahad's throat which made him keep his distance. He held his hands back as if yielding.

The white figure cocked open the black note book, scanning the pictures and words intently. A moment later, the face covered by the white veil looked back at him. The voice, though gutted, struck Mahad as strangely musical and familiar.

"You are one of the archaeologists, yes? Where is the map? Where are the Items?"

Mahad made an even reply.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Those blue eyes narrowed in displeasure.

"Don't play dumb. You know what I'm talking about."

Mahad felt his irritation with this person rise as he answered.

"And I'm telling you, I don't!"

In an incredibly stupid move, he lunged for his notebook, evading the knife. He successfully regained it before the figure reached for it again.

"Hey! Give that back!"

Once more, Mahad felt his irritation peak.

"Give it back? That's my notebook!"

For a moment, the two struggled in a game of tug of war. Not exactly dignified considering how old the two of them were, but this was not time to think about such things.

In an attempt to stop him, the white cloaked figure intended to bluff by swinging the knife toward Mahad. However, a couple attempts later, the knife ripped one of Mahad's shirt.

"Oww!"

This cause the figure to stop and drop the dagger, the blue eyes concerned.

"Are you alright?!"

Mahad used the opportunity to pin the white cloaked person to the wall. The person cringed as they were put up toward the wall.

As soon as Mahad was certain the person wasn't moving, Mahad removed the white veil to get quite the surprise at the face.

His face and voice were tinged with disbelief.

"You're a girl?!"

This caused Ishizu to narrow her eyes. Her voice finally resuming its regular tone.

"Woman!"

And thus giving her a new burst of strength as she pushed Mahad back from her. Her eyes searched for the dagger, found it on the floor, and made a dash for it. Mahad saw this movement and made a lunge to stop her, pushing the both of them to the ground.

After a moment, Ishizu tried to push Mahad away, but he would not let go. For the next couple of moments, the two were wrestling on the floor. As Mahad found himself on top of her, he paused, staring back at Ishizu(though he had no idea that was her name).

Once more, he was struck by the familiarity of this situation, but he was alos a hundred present sure that he had never met her before. He'd have remembered a very beautiful girl that had been trying to kill him and take his notebook.

And for some reason, he felt a strange desire to kiss this woman that tried to kill him. He felt his face lean closer to her before he even realized what he was doing.

Of course it was in that awkward looking situation, someone had to burst in and see.

Mana banged open the door, a look of terror on her face which evaporated as she realized the scene in front of her.

"Mahad! Are you okay? We need to get..out..of….here….."

The trailing sentence made Mahad(whose gaze had been on Mana as the door went open) glance back down at the woman he was on top of. Their eyes met for a moment. He felt his face go as red as a tomato. He had been too preoccupied with fighting, he had forgotten that he had been dealing with a very pretty example of the opposite sex.

In any normal situation, Mahad would have stammered and said something embarrassing to turn the poor unfortunate female he was dealing with. As Mana had said, he had zero skills with girls.

He felt himself hurriedly get off of her, panting and scrambling to get as far from her as possible. The same went for Ishizu, just as red as Mahad, her hand over her mouth.

Mana felt herself unsure how to continue.

"Umm, am I interrupting something?"

Mahad grabbed his notebook as he quickly got to his feet.

"NO!"

"Are you sure? I mean…"

Mahad pushed his sister around and quickly pushed them away from the room.

"I'll explain later!"

Finally, Mana just accepted what he was saying instead moving to his side as they went through the maze of the inside of the ship. Screams and breaks were heard from inside the rooms as it seemed other people had gotten the same experience as Mahad was.

A sudden scent on the air made Mana suddenly stop.

"Is something burning?"

Mahad connected the dots quickly, grabbing his sister's hand and pulling her toward the exit.

"They started a fire. Keep moving!"

The two rushed, for a moment of rarity Mana didn't question anything from her brother. This was a fight to live.

Atem came from around the corner, his eyes giving some relief as he spotted the siblings. He waved his hand to follow him.

"There you are! Come on!"

The siblings got behind him. Following him intently.

However, there were some people that tried to surprise them, but Atem took care of them pushing them toward the wall.

Mana observed the collapsed heap.

"Wow. You're pretty good."

Atem nodded at Man before turning back around.

"We can talk about this later, come on."

Mahad and Mana nodded in agreement and didn't react until they finally got outside the ship.

If it was pandemonium when Atem went to get the Kurozaki siblings, it was complete chaos now. A fire had started and one of the cloaked figures had been caught on fire, but he took some sense and plunged into the Nile. Still the gunshots rang as fire blazed the background, jumbles of Arabic and other languages filled the air as people tried to direct order.

The trio just keep heading for the lifeboats. When they reached them; Ryou, Yugi, Rebecca,and Seto were being lowered into the water. Yugi brightened up on seeing his twin, knowing his brother to be right behind them.

"Atem!"

Atem nodded to his younger brother, glad they weren't too late. Mahad and him climbed into the boat with his grandfather, Bakura, and Professor Hawkins.

His grandfather sighed at things crumbled to pieces around them(metaphorically) as Atem helped Mana into the boat, steadying her as they both took their seats.

"Oh no, not again…"

The majority of the boat(excepting his grandson) looked at the older man disbelieving.

"Again!?"

Solomon laughed uneasily as the boat was lowered into the water, but he didn't pursue the explanation any further. Eventually, the ropes were let go and the small boat drifted on the water. After a few moments, the oars from the raft were taken up by Bakura and Atem(who had stopped holding Mana close to do so) and they tried to row themselves to the solid ground not too far away.

Mahad sighed.

"Now how are we going to get to the sight?"

Professor Hawkins just looked happy to be in the row boat, with his life. He patted several of the bags they managed

"Well, I suppose we'll just have to go the old fashioned land route. I'm just glad we managed to get the stuff that we could."

Mana sighed in some relief before her eyes went wide as she searched her bag.

"Oh no my sketchbook!"

Mahad felt his face lessen, he knew what that book meant to her. He felt his own hand on his own notebook.

"I'm sorry Mana, but I think you're going to have to let it go."

Mana just nodded(an improvement, normally she would have yelled) before her eyes were drawn to the arm which sleeve was ripped off for some reason.

"Mahad, you have a tattoo!"

Mahad looked startled as his eyes went to where his sister's was(as where the majority of the boat's eyes were). It was a tattoo, an outline of some strange object, that struck a familiar chord in Mana's memory. Particularly, the eye symbol.

Mahad slapped his other hand over it.

"Shoot!"

Mana's brain connected the dots as to where she had seen it. She turned to Bakura.

"Bakura, can I see that necklace of yours?"

Bakura smirked.

"Do I get a kiss in return?"

This prompted his foot getting crushed by a dour looking top duelist.

"Oww! Sure."

Mana took the ring in her hands, holding it right next to Mahad's arm. Sure enough, the tattoo seemed like a small outline version of the golden pendant. Everyone's eyes went wide as they realized the connection, the older the first to react. Mr. Muto first, Mr. Hawkins next.

"I can't believe it!"

Professor Hawkins nodded before turning to his former student.

"Yes, Mahad where did you come by that tattoo?"

Mahad chuckled uneasily, hoping he could find a way to get off topic.

"Umm….welll…funny story about that…"

* * *

In the marshes, a slight distance away from the row boats, Weevil and Rex observed the boat go down in flames. Weevil was the first to respond.

"Wow. You know, I suddenly don't feel so bad getting thrown over. Otherwise, we'd have been roasted and toasted."

Rex nodded in agreement before he spied the rowboats, especially the one with Pegasus's silver hair.

"Yeah, but that doesn't change the fact we were thrown over. I can't wait to wipe that smirk off Muto's face. Hey, there's Pegasus! Do we keep on them?"

"Obviously, you moron! I want those Egyptian God Cards! Just make sure we don't get caught this time."

* * *

On the other side of the bank, the Tomb Keepers that hadn't fallen to bullets or gotten caught up in the fire watched the boat also burn.

Marik with his Millennium Rod observed it silently, his blonde hair peeking out from the hood. His face was expressionless.

Odion bowed to him lowly.

"Master Marik, we managed to burn the boat, but it seems that most of the people managed to get away."

Marik's eyes showed irritation at the title.

"Odion, the title.."

Odion caught on as he got up.

"Oh, sorry Marik."

Marik sighed.

"It's alright. Any luck on the Millennium Items?"

Odion nodded.

"We managed to find three Millennium Items on board, though none of us were able to retrieve them. The Eye, the Ring, and the Puzzle."

"You're certain?"

"Positive."

Marik felt one of his hands tap the eye symbol on the Rod, his mind in deep thought.

"The Eye, the Ring, and the Puzzle. Add those to my Rod and Ishizu's Necklace. That leaves the Key and Scales with Shadi(a sour expression twisted on Marik's face at the mention of the emotionless man). It seems that all Seven Items are in Egypt."

At that time, Ishizu in white moved to her brothers quietly. Marik's expression lightened on seeing her.

"Oh Ishizu, there you are. I was worried you hadn't gotten out."

Ishizu's replied, her face coloring as she spoke.

"I'm fine. I just got into a…never mind."

Marik looked upon his sister's uneasiness, but dismissed it. If it were truly that serious, Ishizu would have said.

He pulled out a brown book from his cloak.

"Well, at least it wasn't a complete loss."

Both of his siblings eyes' widened, Ishizu's voice confused.

"What do you mean?"

Her younger brother handed the book to her.

"See for yourself."

Ishizu took the book and flipped through the pages, her eyes widening in the drawing she observed. In the corner, was the signature that was for the most part ignored.

_Mana Kurozaki._

* * *

**V.E.: Man this was a hard chapter! I liked the chapter before last better. Well, I think that the next one will be easier. I just felt the need to get this one done.**

**Please review.**


	9. Desert Trek

**V.E.: Oh God, it's good to be back! I hate car trips with an incredible passion that doesn't make visiting family all that pleasurable. Thank you to all who have reviewed and have been reading. I know that updates to the fics you love never come fast enough.**

**I am going to head right into working on the next BEC chapter after this. As much as I love that story and am proud of it(my most reviewed baby), I have another blueshipping I want to do after it. Even though I haven't even started it, I keep thinking about Princess of Egypt, well here's to the hope it will be just as loved as its predecessor(which I will finish). **

**Hopefully, this chapter will come a lot easier than the last.**

* * *

"NO, no! I don't want all of them."

"That'd be highway robbery!"

The camel seller, a fat man with big eyes and very impressive beard, would not back down.

"Take it or leave it, foreigner men!"

Mahad stood between his former teachers(formal and informal) and the seller, his hands creating line between the two factions.

"Now let's just talk this out."

The majority of the group was watching the heated exchange of bartering and selling. After following the Nile, the expedition party had come to a small little farming village. Most of them just stared at them as one would at some rare animal at a zoo. That isn't to say there weren't people who realized what an opportunity was on their hand, and tried very hard to squeeze whatever money they could out of these foreigners. Whether it was supplies, food, or this case animal transportation.

The girls were absent from the group because they went to look around for provisions and other supplies to be found. So that left the two sets of twins and Seto Kaiba(who would deny he was in their group) to watch the exchange.

Yugi and Ryou seemed to look like they wanted to resolve this as soon as possible as the both of them were rather reluctant to engage in violence, even in self-defense. Atem and Seto were in same camp for once in just being exasperated with the pointlessness of drawing the argument out further. Finally, Bakura just walked to the group, close to the seller's side.

"Will you just pay the man? Watching you guys got boring after ten seconds."

Mahad looked very ready to tell Bakura off before Arthur Hawkins nodded as he dug through his wallet.

"You're right Bakura. Give us a moment. We'll pay."

The seller nodded, his pleased smirk expanding and eyes greedily widened as the money was deposited in his hands. He handed the camels over to Solomon and Arthur.

"Thank you for your business!"

As the two elders and Mahad tried to control the multitude of camels they now possessed, Atem gave Bakura gave an incredulous look as the white haired teen walked back to the group.

"That was surprising."

Bakura's eyes lifted quizzically.

"Oh, what is?"

"You don't break up fights, you cause them. I thought you would enjoy watching people argue for hours."

Bakura shrugged.

"Not when it's pointless and time consuming for me. Believe it or not, I actually want to get to this place as soon as possible. And besides…"

He lifted up a bag, tossing it into the air, hearing the clink of coins with a satisfied grin. His other hand a small knife rested, belonging.

"It's always much more fun to get a fool unawares."

Ryou's face was the epitome of disapproval.

"Bakura! Do I even want to know how you got that past customs?"

"What, he was scamming us! Keep it down before he hears us. And I didn't sneak this knife by customs, I took it from one of out attackers from the boat I knocked out. Besides that guy should really learn not to keep all his money in the same place."

Seto smirked.

"Once a thief always a thief."

"Why thank you Blue Eyes White Dragon fetish."

The glare Seto shat at the older Bakura was enough to melt dry ice.

Yugi sighed.

"Still, did we have to go through all that haggling?"

Atem shrugged in a carefree manner.

"Ah, we could have gotten them for free. All we had to do was give him Mana and Rebecca."

"ATEM!"

Bakura laughed at his somewhat friend's joke.

"Yes, tempting offer isn't it?"

"What's tempting?"

The men turned to find that their female companions had come back, though much better dressed. The two girls had obviously gone shopping in the Arabic market. Rebecca now wore a dark grayish blue dress with a hijab to match. The same went with Mana except she got something white with golden accents and even got a slight beaded veil covering her face, but didn't cover her smile.

Bakura and Atem took a little too long in staring at her(if asked by her brother about acceptable staring, though he was still tangling with the camels at the time who had spit at him).

Rebecca flexed her glasses up her nose, scratching her left sleeve.

"This is itchy. How do women wear this stuff?"

Mana twirled in her outfit.

"I don't know, I think I kind of like it. It reminds me of some of the stuff my mom used to sew for me."

Mana then smacked her right fist into left hand as she scrambled through her back right next to her and pulled out several bottles of sunscreen.

"Oh yeah, I managed to find a local supply store that carried sunscreen. No offense Ryou and Bakura, but I thought you guys would really need this."

Ryou's grateful expression shone through as he took the bottles, as if receiving a great and precious treasure.

"Thank you, thank you Mana!"

Bakura also smiled and nodded his head and thanks.

"Yes, otherwise Ryou turns into a red lobster with chips on the side."

"Bakura!"

Bakura just grinned as he pocketed his hard stolen money bag and continued with his brother toward the camels that seemed finally under control. The both of them bickering, but in a light and close way that left no one in doubt of their closeness to each other.

Yugi glanced at his brother still staring at Mana(who seemed as if really seeing her for the first time) and then turned to the girls with a smile on his face.

"Well, shall we get to the camels?"

Rebecca clomped Yugi's arm, Yugi not flinching for once as if gotten used to it. Her voice was just the perfect example of sugary sweet.

"Only if I get to ride next to you Yugi poo."

Yugi only momentarily flinched as they walked to the camels, Mana laughing slightly as she trailed after them.

Which left Atem still staring after her only to be interrupted by Seto's voice layed with a smirk.

"Smooth Muto, smooth."

Atem regained his senses and glared at Kaiba.

"Shut up. Like you've never acted like a fool over a girl."

Seto thought for a millisecond before replying.

"Nope."

Atem couldn't keep the sarcasm out of his voice.

"Ha ha ha."

He was about to go further before he remembered his conversation with Weevil and Rex on the boat. He knew that there was one person in the group that might know about those cards, it was the CEO.

"Kaiba."

"What is it now?"

"Do you know anything about the Egyptian God Cards?"

Seto's eyes widened briefly, his face giving nothing away.

"Where did you hear about those?"

Atem gave a brief explanation of his encounter with the two annoying duelists the other night. He took a deep breath before he asked.

"So do you know anything?"

"I don't know anything. The only thing anyone knows about the God Cards is speculation and rumors, there's no hard evidence they even exist."

Atem stared at Seto Kaiba with an even look.

"Alright, then tell me what you've heard."

Seto shrugged his shoulders as he glanced around.

"Well the rumors are is that when Pegasus created Duel Monsters, he created a line of rare cards never released to the public. Not surprising to hear that he kept some of the best cards for himself. That is the general news, the more specific news is that the cards were all powerful and inspired by the gods from Egyptian mythology."

Seto 'hmphed.'

"If you believe in that kind of nonsense. Though I'm not surprised that those two wannabes are that desperate to go chasing a fairytale."

Atem sighed as he nodded his head.

"Well, at least we agree on that last part. Question, how'd you come by this information?"

"I know everything there is to know about Duel Monsters, even its legends and urban rumors. Most of this stuff borders on stupidity and outright falsehoods."

Just then, the voice of Yugi called out to the two rivals.

"Come on you guys, the rest of the expedition is ready to head out! We don't want to be left behind."

The two glanced at each other for a moment.

"I suppose we should get going."

Seto gave a look at this rival.

"First night in the ruins, duel at 4000 points?"

Atem smirked.

"Loser has to do the usual?"

"Deal."

* * *

The weary words ever traveler has heard spewed from Mana's lips.

"Are we there yet?"

Mahad sighed before he turned back to his sister.

"NO. And it will be a long time before we even get there."

Mana sighed as she took in the sight of many camels traveling around her, the heat of the desert, and the unending hills of sand. Their group had caught up with Pegasus, for some reason Bakura hurried them to get moving after some Arabic man screamed(for what, she wasn't entirely certain she wanted to know).

She was right next to Atem and Bakura while Yugi was chatting with Ryou(who despite the sunscreen was sweating like a dog and smelled like it too) on their handbook to learning Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Seto Kaiba was taking the heat with a permanent scowl, of course he didn't like traveling in the desert. If he wanted to travel, he'd get his jet to take him(he did NOT have a Blue Eyes White Dragon fetish, Bakura was just some big mouth).

Rebecca took of her hijab and was talking to her grandfather and Professor Muto about the market, Mana had no doubt in her mind Rebecca would change back into her old clothes as soon as they got to the ruins.

Mana had a caught a glimpse at the group ahead of them of Pegasus' silver hair as he talked exuberantly to his companions(who weren't as enthusiastic as the flamboyant CEO). Though he wasn't the only one, several of the archeologists were talking enthusiastically.

(Of course she didn't notice, a small distance behind the group, the rather two large baskets on both sides of a rather large camel, or hear the grunting as an archaeologist kicked both straw baskets. Strangely, the high pitches sounded almost like a certain duo's pitches.)

Mana decided to voice her question.

"What are they talking about?"

Professor Hawkins turned back to the brunette with a small smile at her curiosity.

"Oh, they're just talking about the race."

That perked both twins curiosity as the four answered in unison.

"Race?"

Solomon Muto chuckled.

"Oh it's just a wager Pegasus made on the boat. One thousand dollars to the first person to get to the temple ruins."

Mana felt a little skeptical.

"He's gambling that on a race? How is that supposed to go off?"

Mahad took a breath before adding his two cents. He gave a small chuckle at the end.

"Well if you believe the rumors of how to find this temple, then it will definitely be an interesting race."

Bakura's eyes lit up.

"I'm game."

Atem smirked as his eyes met Bakura's.

"How about a private race?"

"You're on. Winner gets to choose a card from the loser's deck that can't be used in our duel later?"

Atem got close enough and shook on it.

"Deal."

Mana shook her head, her emerald eyes rolling.

"You boys and dueling. Do you guys do anything else?"

The two glanced at each other before looking back at Mana, answering in unison as if they were the twins.

"Nope."

* * *

Mahad sighed, taking in the night air and cool breeze as his camel pressed on. He glanced once more back at his group, most of them had fallen asleep as evening went on.

In particular, his sister was leaning on Atem's shoulder, completely tuckered out. He felt like chuckling as Atem's head was currently resting on Mana's head. How those two ended up in that position, Mahad didn't want to know, but it was incredibly entertaining.

(He wouldn't find it entertaining if he knew what Atem was dreaming about. Teenage boy, pretty girl, skimpy clothes. I think the rest of you can use your imagination. Not that Yugi was that different of course his dreams centered around a certain well endowed brunette with crystal blue eyes.)

"Hey Kurozaki."

Mahad turned his head in the direction of the one person still awake. Bakura gestured his head beyond the sleeping younger twins at the cliff.

"We're not alone."

Mahad squinted his eyes in the distance and knew right away that Bakura was right.

There on the top of that hill, dark clothed figures on horses were mounted. Watching the pack of archaeologists and gun slingers inch toward their destination. Mahad knew they without a doubt that they were the people from the boat.

And he also knew without a flicker of doubt that the woman that tried to kill him, was right there with them.

For some reason, it made his hand go right to his sleeve, that covered his tattoo of the Millennium Ring. He had a bad feeling about this.

* * *

**V.E.: Well, not my worst. When I started out on this website, now that was horrible writing. I guess I've gotten better as I've gotten older and become more experienced.**

**The race is up next, but before that update BEC.**

**Review please, it makes me happy.**


	10. Race to the Ruins

**V.E.: I'm starting this a day after I finished my BEC chapter, but I guess I want to get to this chapter so I can get back to that chapter and so on and so forth.**

**Yes I know, another flashback dream scene, but in this story I feel a great need to have this kind of stuff. As I've said before this is not an exact copy of the movie, partially because this is the Yugioh universe and will obviously take some from the Millennium World. For some reason, most of my muse ideas take place in the Millennium World or AU. **

**Well, read on kindly.**

* * *

_The gardens at night were perhaps the most peaceful places in the palace. The trees with their fruit, the flowers in bloom, and the quiet calm of the man made pond; all of it was undisturbed from the commotion of the festival outside the palace though the shadowed girl walking in the gardens could still hear the noise._

_She just walked on, taking in all in the garden she had missed in the daylight. It was different by herself. In fact, aside from the guards, she was probably the only one still in the palace that wasn't enjoying the festival. _

_Though normally the only reason she wouldn't be at a festival was if she had pulled some big prank prior, this time she stayed behind because of choice. She hated this time of year most of all. At the same, she couldn't help but feel envy for the others. At least they had something to celebrate._

_Even her new friend had gone to the festival, though that was probably because a certain high priest had asked her to accompany him. She chuckled, it was completely obvious the attraction the two held for each other. Almost as completely obvious as the one her master had for the seer priestess._

_These thoughts just made her frown, a sigh escaping her. It was these times that reminded her how much of an outcast she was. Everyone had someone and a place, if not in this palace then somewhere else. What did that make her?_

"_Why so sad?"_

_She started in surprise, her head turning around everywhere to see the owner of the voice. She didn't expect anyone else to be here._

_A deep chuckle resounded through the garden, a decidedly male sounding one._

"_You're not very good at realizing if someone's there. I've been here for about fifteen minutes watching you."_

_Her eyes widened then narrowed._

"_Then show yourself!"_

_A tone of amusement entered his voice._

"_Oh and who says so? Some noble woman? A priestess? Oh wait, all of the priestesses are at the festival. Same with the dancers."_

_She grimaced at the intruder's words._

"_Don't talk to me about the festival, alright! Why do you think I'm here?"_

_This prompted a silence before he responded again in interested tone._

"_Well, I can say that I don't know why you're here in the gardens, specifically."_

_Mana felt herself flush a little._

"_Because it's the one place that makes me feel like I can be alone. The one place I don't have to pretend to be something I'm not."_

_This prompted another silence before a noise was heard as a shadowed person jumped down from one of the trees. Even in the dark, the magician's apprentice could see the man's(he was definitely no boy) untamable white hair, two scars standing out from his tan skin on his cheek, and strangely enticing light purple eyes._

_Those eyes observed everything about the girl in front of him. Her brown hair, emerald eyes, pretty figure. Once done with their observation, he crossed his arms and his face settled into a puzzled expression._

"_Hmm….you're not like the other people I've seen here."_

_The girl 'hmphed,' her voice becoming almost bitter._

"_Maybe because I don't belong here."_

_The puzzled eyes became more interested._

"_Oh, who says that?"_

"_No one says that, but they think it."_

_It took a moment for the scarred man to connect the dots._

"_You're a commoner?"_

_She nodded._

"_And if it weren't for my magic I wouldn't even be here."_

"_A__h, so you're a magician."_

_She laughed uneasily._

"_Well, magician's apprentice. And Master often says that I'll never become a magician until I learn some patience."_

_The man adjusted his dark robes for a moment before continuing._

"_And what does your Master say about wandering around the garden at night?"_

_She shrugged nonchalantly. _

"_Master's probably having a drinking contest with Seto about now, those two always do that at every festival. Or they're all visiting their ancestors' temples about now, that's what the Feast of Wag is about."_

"_Oh and why aren't you outside Miss Magician, worshipping with your ancestors?"_

_She could feel the bitterness in her voice._

"_It's hard to do that when you don't have any."_

_Understanding filled his reply._

"_Oh."_

_Once more the silence filled the night. She shifted nervously, deciding to finally voice the question on her mind._

"_And who are you? What are you doing here?"_

_This prompted an amused smirk from the shadowed man._

"_Well, who I am is of no importance, not yet anyway. As to why I am here, I was certain that just about everyone in the palace would be gone for the festival. It seems I was wrong, however if that were not true, we would not have met my lady."_

_She smiled slightly at his address to her._

"_Don't call me that. I'm certainly no lady."_

_The purple eyes became amused as his hands held a very familiar necklace._

"_Oh, I'd say that this looks like a lady's ruby necklace to me."_

_The girl's hand went to her neck, bare feeling. Her face turned annoyed as she tried to grab the necklace as the thief held it out of her reach._

"_Hey, give that back! That was gift!"_

_This didn't faze the thief, he seemed to be getting some enjoyment out of playing with her._

"_From who? Some smooth faced admirer? Certainly with eyes like those, you have many."_

"_No, from the woman who brought me here!"_

_This caused him to pause._

"_Really, why?"_

_Her voice went softer as she stopped trying to reach the necklace._

"_To say goodbye. She used to visit me all the time, but I never saw her again after she gave me that necklace. She was the closest thing I had to a mother."_

_He turned his eyes back on the necklace, trying to read something into it, before holding it out to her and she took it back._

"_Then it's yours. So many people hold onto to something they neither need nor deserve to have."_

_Understanding filtered across the young woman' face._

"_You're a thief!"_

_He made a mock bow, a smirk on his face._

"_The Thief King, at your service."_

"_I've never heard of you."_

_That didn't stop the smirk on his face._

"_As I've said, not yet any way."_

_Her eyes darted around the garden._

"_You know I could call the guards right now."_

_Amusement once more entered the thief's tone._

"_Ah, but if you wanted to you would have done so already. And if I wanted to I could have done with you as any other thief would have, but I didn't. I'll leave you to wonder why."_

_He turned to leave, but before that he turned back and found the emerald eyes he had complimented._

"_Just so you know, I know what it's like to lose something close to you. To feel like you're alone. Something I don't think many people in this palace would understand."_

_With that, a moment he was there. The next he vanished into the night._

_Which left the young magician to stare after him. She would not call the guards. __And she knew somehow she would meet him again. Though for good or ill, she couldn't know._

* * *

Mana uneasily opened her eyes, as she once more took in the hot desert air and the unending sand mounds. Sometime while sleeping, she had leaned her body forward towards her camel's head. She stretched as she scratched behind the camel's ear.

They had traveled like this for several days, stopping only occasionally. She had disliked the idea of traveling in the night, but it was cooler than the day and the faster they got to the ruins, the faster they could go home.

"Well nice to see you're up."

She turned behind her to find Bakura looking amused. For some reason, she almost felt like there should be a couple of scars on one of his cheeks, but she then mentally smacked herself. Now wasn't the time to dwell on dreams.

"I fail to see what you find amusing."

Ryou was right next to his brother, covering a yawn before he spoke.

"Don't mind him Mana, he likes teasing everyone."

Seto's eyes weren't open as his camel next to Atem's, but his voice told everyone that he was indeed awake.

"Would you guys wait to flirt until the afternoon? For once, I wanted to sleep in."

Atem glared at the CEO(whether if he disliked him or the comment, you be the judge). This led Yugi to sigh at his brother's reaction.

Solomon called back to the younger group, both him and Professor Hawkins were stopped as if waiting for something as were many of the other riders.

"Now, now; we're almost there."

This caused the teens and preteens to stop beside the older archaeologists. Most of them however were very puzzled by this turn of events. Why were they just waiting there?

Just then, Pegasus called to another archaeologist, his voice as merry and exuberant as ever.

"Just remember, one thousand dollars to the first person to enter the ruins! And I'll throw in a Duel Monster of the winner's choice."

Bakura's eyes gleamed at the extra prize.

"Well, this just became more interesting."

Atem's eyes were resolute as he met the white haired thief's eyes.

"Don't tell me you're backing out of our bet."

"What on earth gave you that idea? That just makes me more determined to beat you."

Their younger twins sighed in unison as the heat of competition flared up even further. They both shared a look of sympathy and understanding, this was obviously a common occurrence.

Rebecca fixed her glasses as she also looked determined.

"Money's no problem, but free Duel Monsters is always nice, even if it's just one."

Mahad chuckled with the older gentlemen at Rebecca's attitude as he looked forward into the desert.

"Get ready."

Mana looked at her brother questioningly.

"Ready for what?"

"We're about to be shown the way."

Mana turned her direction of gaze where Mahad's was and waited for a moment. As the sun came up, something in the distance seem to change. As seconds passed, it seemed as if a structure from the heavens was descending down with the winds. It didn't stop its descent as some of the company gasped at the visual trick before them.

As the sun was firmly in its place, the building finally landed though it was only part of the entire thing as most of them realized this. It was the ruins of the Temple, and now it was seen.

Ryou was one of the many in awe.

"I'll be…"

Rebecca nodded in shock.

"I've never seen anything like that."

Seto shrugged, his eyes now more open.

"Eh, it's just some cheap trick."

Solomon shared a glance with Arthur Hawkins.

"Well, here we go again."

At that, a great burst of noise was heard as everyone yelled and charged toward the ruins; all of them eager for the prize offered(more so at the first than the later).

Atem and Bakura urged on their camel with their "Hyas!" and they both quickly led near the front.

Rebecca also followed, but she was lingering behind. Finally, she realized that those two had the better chance and let her camel go slow.

Yugi, Ryou, Mahad, and Seto lingered behind with the older men as none of them were that interested in racing. They were passed greatly by all the other contestants in this impromptu race.

Mahad sighed with a smile as he saw Bakura and Atem urge forward to the peak of the pack and turned to smile at his younger sister, hoping to find one one her face.

And that smile melted quickly as he realized Mana was not beside them.

"Mana?!"

Several of the riders had fallen to the ground(one camel in particular with two large baskets had apparently been forced to ground taking the baskets with it and causing two shorter people to tumble out with a really large "OWW!"). Pegasus, as a matter of fact, wasn't even bothering to race. His specialty was strategy, facing an opponent. Games of chance wasn't exactly his style.

At the front, Bakura and Atem were neck and neck, urging their rides further on. Though, they had the air of competition, it could also be seen that the both of them were enjoying this healthy race.

And one of them would have probably have taken the prize had they realized they had someone right behind them."

"Ti ti ti! Go on!"

The teenage boys turned to find Mana urging her snow white camel on, easily catching up to them.

Atem caught her eye, a look of disbelief and smile was mixed together on his face. Bakura wasn't that too far behind in astonishment.

Mana returned Atem's look with a smile and a laugh.

Then she turned back forward as her camel too an even greater lead from the group and eventually passed the columns of the ruins tomb.

Rebecca called out in delight as she waved her hand.

"Go Mana! Go!"

Mahad looked on as his sister did go on in disbelief.

Seto's eyes were surprised.

"If you're sister's as good a duelist as she is a racer, remind me never to duel her."

Mahad looked at his somewhat enemy in disbelief.

"Why? Scared you'd lose?"

"Oh, shut up!"

* * *

**V.E.: Well, I'll get to Mana's prize and the Temple underground next time. And thus we are close to raising Aknadin. This story is finally getting underway. I now this is pretty fast considering the time between updates(I usually wait a week).**

**Anyway, review.**

**Note: The festival of Wag honored a person's ancestors. It was common for a family to go to their tombs and give an offering to their spirits.**

**Ps. To anyone who is interested, I put up a slight summary to that story I wanted to write on Atem's parents on my profile. Check it out if you want.**


	11. Descent Below

**V.E.: I wonder how this will come off, since I've thought awhile about this chapter. This is another one of my favorite parts of the movie, so I hope to do it justice.**

**Please take on kindly.**

* * *

Maximilian Pegasus was like no other person Mana had ever met. She couldn't decide whether that was a good thing or bad thing.

His amber eye lit up as he caught sight of her, an exuberant smile which matched his voice.

"So this is the winner of our little race!"

Mana felt a little taken back as Pegasus examined her. After she had been declared the winner and the rest of the diggers had caught up with her, Chemo (who was Pegasus' bodyguard) told her that Pegasus wanted to see her personally to deliver her prize.

The money had been handed to her as soon as she entered the makeshift tent that had been set up for the gaming CEO. What she didn't expect was the many suitcases open that seemed to house only Duel Monsters cards.

Suddenly, she couldn't help but see the differences between Seto and Pegasus. Seto was cold, reserved, and formal; Pegasus was cheery, exuberant, and nonchalant.

Pegasus eyes caught hers(the one she could see though she suppose he had another behind his wall of hair), a smile still dancing in his expression.

"Well, I heard you're traveling with the Mutos. I guess I'm quite the difference compared to Kaiba boy, aren't I?"

Mana shrugged, privately she wondered if she could get away with maybe calling Kaiba that.

Unfortunately, Pegasus next words dashed her hopes.

"Oh, I wouldn't try that dearie. I only get away with it because Kaiba needs me for business deals. If it weren't for me, Kaiba boy wouldn't have set ten miles within Egypt."

Mana was surprised at Pegasus' intuitiveness.

_What is he, a mind reader?_

**(AN: Irony, I love you so.)**

At this, Mana almost thought she caught an incredibly amused look on Pegasus' face, but that swiftly disappeared as he clapped his hands together.

"Now, now; let's not forget why we're here. Time for the second part of your prize."

At the clap of his hands, more suitcases were opened by his men, showing even more cards.

Mana felt slightly disbelieving at the sight.

_Does he have every card in existence here?_

Once more, as if knowing what she was thinking, the silver haired man answered.

"Just so you know, not every card is here. Although, I must ask that you spare my Toons. I'm quite attached to them. So, what card are you interested in?"

Mana had to speak the truth then.

"Mr. Pegasus…"

He waved his hand off.

"Please just Pegasus is fine."

"Alright Pegasus. This is a really great selection, but I'm not a duelist at all. I tried to understand the game once, but I failed miserably."

Pegasus considered this for a moment.

"Oh, what a pity. But my dear, it's not too late to pick it up."

Pegasus' eyes lit up as he came up with a new idea.

"Oh I know! Along with giving you a new card, I can help build you a deck. It's no problem, I certainly have enough cards to get twenty people started."

Mana felt surprised at his offer.

"That's very sweet, but wouldn't that be too much trouble?"

Once again, he waved her concerns away.

"Nonsense, nonsense! I love helping new duelists get into the game! Now then, we need to decide on your signature."

Mana felt confused.

"My signature?"

Pegasus continued on in his cheery voice.

"A signature monster is what is most recognized of a person's deck, in other words you could say it's a duelist's favorite card. Yugi and Atem have the Dark Magician, Kaiba is possessive of his Blue Eyes White Dragons, and of course I have my lovable Toons! Of course the last isn't just one card. Now then, to get a look into your signature monster we need to learn a bit about yourself. That way the deck can be matched to you."

Mana felt a little impressed by the way Pegasus was going through this, she scratched her head trying to think of something.

"Well, I like science and art."

Pegasus nodded.

"That's good, but what type of monster would you like? Most girls like Fairy types and generally most people like Dragons. Warriors and Beasts are more popular with the boys."

Mana shook her head.

"I don't think any of those fit me really."

Pegasus 'hmmed' before a metaphorically 'DING!' went off in his head.

"Do you like magic? Like a Spellcaster?"

Mana nodded.

"Yeah, why?"

The flamboyant CEO snapped his fingers.

"I know just the card!"

He went over to one of the open suitcases on his makeshift desk and went through one of the stacks. His eyes lit up as he found the card and held it out for Mana to take.

"I believe this is yours."

Mana took the card warily and felt her eyes widened as she looked upon it. A female spell caster with a sweet expression, blonde hair, and emerald green eyes that stared back at her. For a moment, Mana was struck by how familiar the card was to her.

The title gleamed. **Dark Magician Girl. **

It took only a moment for her to decide.

"I'll take her."

Pegasus lit up.

"Excellent! Now, if you'll just give me a little while to assemble the deck. You can keep Dark Magician Girl, I'll get the rest to you later."

Mana felt herself a little confused by how the CEO was going about this.

"Um, how are you supposed to build me a deck if you don't know anything about me or what I would possibly use as a duel strategy?"

For a moment, the CEO was silent before he began to chuckle.

"Don't worry about it, let's just say I have a gift at reading people and that can extend to what they will use in a duel. I'll come and see you when I'm done today. After that, ask Yugi boy or Atem boy to teach you the basics. Kaiba isn't necessarily the best of teachers and I would worry for the rest of the duelist community if Bakura were to give out lessons."

Mana felt new questions spring up before Pegasus stopped them.

"In a way, it's kind of fitting you begin dueling here."

Mana remembered her conversation with Mahad at the hotel.

"Oh yeah, you based Duel Monsters on some game from Ancient Egypt."

A smile curved even more.

"Oh, it's nice to meet someone so well informed. I guess Mahad told you that, you are his sister."

Mana sighed.

"Unfortunately."

"Now, now, he is your brother. Granted I'm hardly the one to lecture about family, but nothing ventured nothing gained. I'll see you soon little Mana!"

Before she could ask how he knew her name, she had already been pushed outside his tenet back into the hot desert air. She took a look around at the pillars of the ruins, the obvious confirmation they were at a historical site. Diggers and archaeologists were scattered throughout the surrounding area and she searched for her own group.

Sure enough, on the top of what seemed to be a hill or steps, there was everyone else. Both of the twins' hairstyles were dead giveaways. Clutching the DMG card in her hand and the bag of cash over her shoulder, she strode over to them carefully. She passed by the all sounds of the nearby camels, the mixing languages of English, Arabic, and some Japanese.

Finally, she came close enough to the group to see what they were doing. Atem and Bakura were both doing some tying with some of the rope they had while their calmer counterparts were wiping things off some mirrors. Rebecca was currently making some notes from a book she was reading.

Mahad was supervising this and he said to Yugi and Ryou.

"Come on you too, you're supposed to catch the light with that."

Seto 'hmphed.'

"So what's with the mirrors anyway? To be honest, I'm surprised that these Ancient Egyptians even had mirrors."

Mahad fixed Kaiba up with a glare.

"Just so you know, Ancient Egyptians had some of the modern conveniences me have today like toilets and showers. Though and obviously not like the ones we have. And secondly, the mirrors are part of an Ancient Egyptian trick. You'll see what I mean later."

Mana sighed in exasperation.

"Kaiba, please don't ask my brother anything else. Otherwise, he'll talk all our ears off. Take it from one with experience."

The entire group turned back at Mana in surprise, they didn't hear her return. Rebecca popped up from her book and walked over to the brunette.

"Hey, you're back! So what card did you get?"

Mana lifted up her DMG card to her face.

"Take a look."

Rebecca looked surprised at Mana's choice.

"Dark Magician Girl? Hey, Yugi, Atem, don't you two have her in your deck?"

Yugi strode over to see and examined the card for a moment before nodding.

"Yeah, we do. But it's weird, she looks like you as a blonde."

Mana nodded.

"That's not all. Apparently, now Pegasus is going to build me a starter deck for no charge."

Mahad decided to put in his input.

"Well, that was strangely nice of him."

Mana made an unsure expression.

"He's different, I'll give him that."

Seto Kaiba's replied after that.

"No doubts about that."

All of the younger members of the group nodded in agreement.

Bakura and Atem stood back from their handiwork for a moment to inspect. Bakura then addressed Mahad.

"Hey Killjoy, I think we're ready here!"

Mahad grimaced for a moment before glancing at the mirrors. Then he spoke.

"Alright, so who's going down with me?"

Rebecca chimed in.

"I'll stay behind. Since Mr. Muto had some back trouble and Grandpa went with him to get some first aid, I'll stay behind until they get back."

Atem nodded.

"Plus those two are a little old to get down into this kind of stuff. Well, count me in."

Bakura smirked as he let go of the rope and rubbed his hands together.

"Me too. Any place that should have treasure is fine by me."

Mahad shot a dry look at the kleptomaniac.

"Try to keep a hold of yourself thief. Everything we find has to be returned to the Egyptian government. We can't keep much for ourselves that they don't allow."

Bakura snapped his fingers in disappointment.

"Drat. Ryou, are you coming along?"

Ryou nodded.

"Definitely! This is what we came out here for."

Atem nodded as he turned to his twin.

"What about you Yugi?"

"I'm in."

Seto Kaiba 'hmphed' once more.

"Well, I'm out."

Bakura shot Seto Kaiba a smirk.

"Oh really, don't tell me you've become like Joey who can't even go through the haunted house at the fair."

Seto shot a very virile glare before stomping over towards the rope.

"That's not it! Hand me that rope!"

Mana chuckled.

"Well, that was easy to get him motivated."

Atem looked at Mana questioningly.

"I suppose you'll be staying up here."

Mana sighed.

"Well, that was the original plan, but since I don't have my sketchbook I might as well come along. Besides, it's not like I don't know what to expect. Just let me put away prizes."

Mahad looked at his sister with surprise before he nodded.

"Alright. I guess that's settled. Who wants to go down first?"

* * *

Mahad's voice broke through the quiet the group found themselves in as they had landed in the dank dark of the ruins. He, Bakura, and Atem carried the torches with some light.

"Do you know we're standing in a room no one has entered for five thousand years?"

Seto rolled his eyes.

"Impressive. I'm not amused."

Atem aimed a glare at the CEO.

"Oh shut it Kaiba."

Mahad scanned the room, before finding his target. He walked over and wiped the mirror of its cobwebs. Then he positioned the mirror toward the gleam of light.

"And then there was light."

With the end of that statement, the mirror had been tilted in the right direction, catching the light. The light bounced of it into every mirror in the present vicinity, illuminating the room. Everyone could see the decorated wall, the sandy floors, and the odd instruments in the room they now were.

Atem nodded his head in acknowledgement.

"Wow, that is a neat trick."

Mana nodded her head in acceptance.

"Once, Mahad created the same trick in our old basement. It didn't work as well as this, but you got the idea."

Mahad's eyes scanned the room before they widened.

"Oh my Ra, we're in a preparation chamber."

Ryou looked interested.

"Preparation for what?"

"For entering the afterlife."

Bakura caught on quickly.

"Mummies, Ryou, this is where they made the mummies. Dad said this was called the Temple of Anubis. Makes sense the god of mummification had these chambers in his temple."

Mana nodded before catching something interesting out of the corner of her eye.

"Hey, look at that!"

Everyone followed her gaze and walked toward a wall inscribed with some strange pictures that seemed to be a plan of some sorts. It was colorful compared the drawings of the room that were just carved sand. But it was the images around the building that caught everyone's attention.

Ryou was the first to comment on the strangely familiar creatures around the drawing.

"Those look like Duel Monsters! Curse of Dragon, Sangan the Dark Clown, Feral Imp…."

Mana felt her hand reach out to another symbol, a just as familiar looking eye.

"This eye looks like the eye on Bakura's Ring and Atem's Puzzle."

Mahad took a look at what his sister was touching.

"The Eye of Wdjat probably. Strange, what do you think this drawing means?"

"It's a map."

Everyone turned around, surprised to find it was Yugi who had answered. He continued on as he kept looking at the map, pointing to a room and then to a corner.

"We're in this room right here. It says in the corner there that this is a design of the temple of Anubis."

Ryou's eyes widened in amazement.

"Yugi, you can read this?!"

Yugi nodded.

"Sure, but can't you? I mean, we both have been trying to learn to read this stuff."

Ryou shook his head.

"I recognize some of these things from our book, but I don't recognize most of these hieroglyphics. What about you Mahad?"

Mahad shook his head as well.

"Same here. I can only read some of it."

Bakura shrugged it off.

"Oh who cares how we can read it? Where does it say the treasure room is?"

Yugi traced the map with his finger, finally ending in a room.

"I think if we follow this path here, we should reach some sort of chamber."

Bakura then rubbed his hands in anticipation.

"Well what are we waiting for then?"

As everyone was turning toward the direction Yugi suggested, Mana was about to get a closer look at the outline Yugi had traced before stopping as she heard a murmuring and slight skittering sound. Her voice became startled.

"What was that?"

Mahad listened for a moment before shrugging it off.

"It's probably just the scarabs. Are you coming?"

Mana listened for a moment before heading toward the direction the group was taking.

"Sure."

* * *

"Are you sure we're in the right spot?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

Weevil and Rex both shot irritated looks at each other as they tried to find their way around the desert ruins. The two had waited for awhile before determining it safe to emerge and begin their search for the legendary cards. Needles to say, they were pretty clueless.

Rex sighed.

"Maybe the Egyptian God Cards aren't here."

"Why else would Pegasus be here? Of course they're here!"

But just before the insect duelist could continue his rant, the two of them heard a crack and a shift. That stopped them as the ground gave way beneath them and put them into a fall.

"AAAHHHHH!"

* * *

Marik and his siblings watched in a distance at the archaeologists. He had also seen another small group go down into the Temple and two small children fall into the ground Yet they made no movement as they simply watched.

Once more, Marik glanced at his sister.

"Well?"

Ishizu shook her head.

"Not yet. They haven't found** it**. Yet."

* * *

**V.E.: Wow, I'm surprised by how long it took me to finish this! I started this right after I finished the last BEC chapter.**

**Why can Yugi read what Mahad and Ryou can't? Pay attention, that's actually going to be something that's going to come up in this story.**

**Next chapter, comes the tomb and of course the book. I think. I need to plan it out first.**

**Please review.**


	12. The Prisoner's Cell

**V.E.: Oy vey, I am definitely trying to overachieve something. I just updated BEC yesterday! I don't know why, but I keep on writing, while waiting for movies to load. It's a good way to pass time when you're bored.**

**Now then, we get into the corpse who will rise soon. I feel my anticipation at the raising and all hell breaks loose! I sound so evil, and yet it is the very plot of my story! **

**Play on, my creation(I am really bored right now)!**

* * *

Going down a dark creepy hallway, inside some ancient temple to some Egyptian god of the dead, wasn't how Mana wanted to spend her summer vacation. Then again, she did have a choice in the matter and she chose to go deeper into the ruins. The fault was on her own head.

That didn't stop her from wishing she could have found a way to stay back in Japan with Kisara as she went through the cobwebbed passage with strange monster drawings on the walls. Her back didn't stop shivering as she progressed further and further into the darkness, only illuminated by the torches the group carried with them.

She found her staring at Yugi who was navigating what he knew from the map. Something about that didn't add up, how was Yugi, a novice in ancient languages, able to understand something her brother, who had graduated and lived this stuff, didn't?

Come to think about, something else wasn't adding up. Recalling what she had heard about Egyptian ruins, Mana posed a question to her brother.

"Hey, Mahad?"

Her brother didn't take his eyes off the path in front of him, but he heard her.

"Yeah?"

"Didn't you say that these ancient places have traps and stuff? You know, just in case of tomb robbers. How come we haven't run into that stuff?"

"This is a temple, not a royal tomb. It was guarded with people, not traps."

Ryou shivered slightly.

"I don't know, this place certainly feels like a tomb."

Bakura nodded as he glanced at the pictures on the wall, spoting a picture of a man embedded with something that looked like jewels. He went over to it, almost touching the stones.

"These look promising."

Mahad's input dashed Bakura's hopes.

"All that glitters is not gold. Those aren't jewels, they're scarabs enclosed in stone. Don't touch them, they'll hatch, get under your skin, and eat you from the inside out."

That immediately got the thief to back away from the man to realize the picture was of him screaming. He suppressed a small shiver.

Seto glanced at the picture for a moment.

"I'm not going to ask how that's possible, but did you have to stop Bakura?"

Bakura shot a dry glare at the CEO.

"Nice to know I mean so much to you."

"You broke into my company's building, stole one of the new duel disks prototypes, and took it for a free ride! You're lucky I didn't press charges!"

Bakura rolled his eyes.

"The only reason you didn't do that, is because you didn't want your security guards' stupidity broadcasted all over the news."

Atem chuckled as Seto's face turned an even darker red.

Mahad sighed.

"Well, I can't say whether it's a good thing or not Kaiba and I agree on something."

Seto and him looked each other and shared a simultaneous shiver before glaring at each other.

Which was halted as Yugi made a pronouncement looking at the path they were taking.

"It's dead end."

Atem's eyes narrowed in confusion as he examined the evidence of his twin's claims.

"I can't believe it. But the map…"

Yugi shrugged.

"Maybe it was meant to confuse tomb robbers."

Mahad shook his head.

"That makes no sense, since only the educated could read hieroglyphics. Why would it lead us to a dead end?"

Ryou leaned back into the dead end.

"Well, I'm stumped."

Which made him yelp as the dead end gave way, landing him on the dusty ground. He rubbed his bottom as his brother came into the room, looking at his brother in concern.

"Ryou, are you alright?"

"Yeah, just a little startled. Where are we?"

This caused the group to enter farther into the room, bringing in the light of the torches. But Mana's gaze lingered on the wall, more specifically were Ryou had been leaning. Her hand once more touched the familiar eye symbol.

_The Eye of Wdjat again. This can't be a coincidence._

Mahad's voice brought Mana out of her musings.

"Mana, I know you hate everything Ancient Egyptian, but you got to see this."

Mana turned away the familiar symbol to get a glimpse at what Mahad was seeing. And she immediately saw what he meant.

It almost looked like hallowed sanctuary if not for the coffin in the center of the room, which seemed to have once been illuminated by oil lamps. Slabs of stone surrounded it, almost guarding it. The walls were once more depicted the strange creature, but this time they were colored, making them seem alive.

At least that's what Mana thought. And she had an instinctive feeling that she shouldn't go anywhere near it. Her body was shivering, almost hearing something murmuring.

She suddenly was startled as she felt something on her shoulder. She tunred around to find Atem looking at her with concern.

"Are you okay? You're shaking."

Mana nodded, but Atem still came closer to her. With that, the two walked into the room truth fully as Mahad went forward to big outer sarcophagus. He was joined by the rest of the group except for Yugi, who was more focused on the pictures behind the stone.

Seto took a glance at the surrounding objects.

"What's with all the stone tablets and why do they look like Duel Monsters?"

Mahad turned his attention to stones, his eyes widening before returning to the stone body chest.

"They must have been part of the earliest duels, what the game was based on. This man must have been a high ranking priest. For his body to be buried in the Temple of Anubis, he must have been someone of great importance."

"Or he did something pretty terrible."

The group turned to Yugi questioningly, but he didn't turn back from the pictures and hieroglyphics. He continued on.

"On the map form before, it said it this was a temple, but in this place it says 'prison of Anubis.' It says clearly right under this picture; 'Foolish mortals shall not escape this place for entering the dungeon place of the oath keeper.'. Or if you want to get more technical, cell."

The group turned back to the coffin(except for Seto Kaiba who had lost interest in his current surroundings). Mahad tried to budge the coffin, but it wouldn't move. It was sealed shut.

Seto decided to give in his remark.

"Wait, let me guess; some priests sealed the coffin with some magical spell as to never let the mummy walk among st the living lest he be resurrected."

**(AN: Once more, irony comes up in my stories.)**

Mahad shot a dry glare at his somewhat enemy.

"You're not helping."

"Wasn't trying to."

Mahad was about to respond, when his hands felt something on the sarcophagus. He turned to find the very familiar eye symbol almost staring back at him.

"What's the Eye of Wdjat doing on this coffin?"

As if to answer his question, it began to glinted brightly. At the same time, though none of them noticed except Mana, Bakura and Atem, the boys' own Items were beginning to glow slightly. Eventually the eye stopped it's glimmer and gave way to the a sound.

CLICK!

And with that, the stone slab slide away just slightly.

Most of the people looked at the coffin in disbelief.

Of course, that wouldn't last for long as the next strange sound echoed through the ruins.

"AAAGGGGHHHHHH!"

This starteld the entire group, even Seto Kaiba. Ryou was the first to react.

"What was that?"

Atem shook his head.

"Don't know."

Mahad glanced back at the stone for a moment before turning back to the group.

"The mummy will be here later, let's go find out what that noise is about."

The group nodded as they hurriedly got out of a room that Mana did not wish to enter again.

* * *

Maxmilian Pegasus was normally enthusiastic to get his hands dirty with Egyptian artifacts, he had developed such a fondness for the culture that had helped him develop his beloved creation. However right now, he was focused on an item of greatest importance.

He laughed as he once more went through the excellent exploits of Funny Bunny evading his doggy police chaser.

"Honestly, where do these guys get their ideas?"

He chuckled once more as he went on. He suddenly wished for his cheese and red wine to enjoy it, but he didn't bring any of that heavenly food to Egypt. Ah well, he was done with thtat deck for that Mana girl. He would have to send Croquet over with it to her tonight.

Speaking of his most trusted associate, Croquet entered the tent and cleared his throat.

"Master Pegasus."

The silver haired man looked up from his comic book.

"Oh? What's our progress?"

The man in the shades continued on.

"The diggers did exactly as you directed. Using the map's sign markers, they found themselves in the chamber of the temple."

Pegasus smiled, though his associate couldn't see it. He had heard the unasked question of 'How on earth did he know where to go?' He went on as if he didn't though.

"Good, and the statue?"

Croquet shifted uncomfortably.

"Well, ummm…."

Pegasus wasn't deterred.

"What is it?"

Croquet gulped before going on.

"Well, we found the statue of Anubis as well. The archaeologists wanted to continue going through the temple more, to find if some other things of worth had been left behind, but we stayed to your directions and investigated the statue."

Pegasus was really getting annoyed at the vague way Croquet was going about this and made it clear in his voice.

"Get to the point, Croquet!"

Croquet stiffened, but went on.

"Well, the diggers tried the secret compartment you thought the statue might hold. When they finally got it open, there was some kind of powder that came out that latched onto the diggers skins. It killed all of the ones it touched. The powder apparently burned their very skin. Everyone underground could hear the screams."

Pegasus took the information with an expressionless face.

"I guess I should have known better. Those high priests were no fools, they wouldn't have sealed away one of their most priceless and most dangerous treasures unless they were sure there was some sort of safe guard. Just in case someone figured out where it was"

Croquet nodded slowly, wondering where his boss' mind was(granted that was question he had to wonder quite frequently).

"I suppose so, sir."

"And the compartment? What was in it?"

"A book sir, just as you thought it contained."

A look of triumph flashed across Pegasus' face. He was so glad Croquet couldn't see his expression.

"Bring it here."

Croquet stepped aside as Chemo brought in the subject of the conversation, wrapped in a bundle.

"Already done."

Chemo laid the book before Pegasus and stepped back to let the CEO see it.

His boss was quick to answer.

"Leave me."

The two willingly complied.

Once they were out of ear shot, Pegasus examined the book as he thought back how he got involved in this expedition in particular. He removed the curtain of hair that usually covered the golden Item that connected him to the ancient civilization he was currently excavating.

Ever since he had gotten the Millennium Eye, there were times that Maximilian Pegasus would get feelings to do certain things. Like investing in Kaiba Corp's technology or throwing a Duel Monster's tournament where he met the Muto siblings. Pegasus couldn't explain these feelings, only that he felt they were essential to what his goal was.

A couple of months ago, when the word of this temple had come to him, he had once again got those feelings. Hence the reason to finance the trip, even going along with it himself. Although he felt some resistance to coming back to Egypt, he had trusted these feelings before and nothing but good had come of them. He would trust them again.

He unwrapped things carefully, as the book glinted back at him with what seemed to be a golden eye.

The Millennium Spellbook.

His amber eye closed as he remembered for what he was doing all this for.

_Cecelia…. _

The golden eye on the book glowed as his Millennium Eye did, responding to each other. After the light died down, the book gave an audible 'Click!' and opened its pages, revealing it's secrets for the first in in several thousand years.

* * *

Ishizu awoke from what she had seen, gasping as if she had been drowning. She clutched on of her hands on the reigns of the black stallion she was riding, the other enclosed the Millennium Necklace.

Both of her brothers looked over at her with concern.

"ISHIZU!"

"Miss Ishtar!"

Ishizu held up her hands, stopping them. She regained her breath before turning to her brothers with both fear and certainty.

"They've found it, they've found them both."

Both of their eyes went wide before Marik turned back to the others.

"Gather everyone! We strike at nightfall!"

* * *

**V.E.: Another chapter finished, I can't wait to get to next chapter where the Tomb Keepers ambush everyone! Why do I get so excited at those scenes?**

**Review.**


	13. Night Ambush

**V.E.: Well, I'm determined to update this once more before the month is out. Plus it's been so long since I've been to this story. I can't believe it since this is one of my favorite parts I've planned out so far. And I'm finally coming down to the end of my BEC story.**

**Well, I might as well get it over with. The plan has been out for a while, just not printed down into exact wards. Now you will all see.**

* * *

Atem looked at Seto gloatingly as his rival saw the Spellbinding Circle trap card his opponent had played.

"And that leaves your Blue Eyes weak enough for my Dark Magician to attack. Which puts your life points, oh what was it again?...oh right, zero."

Seto groaned as he looked down at the cards before him.

"Why didn't I bring a duel disk to this civilization forsaken spot in the middle of nowhere?"

Bakura didn't bother to turn and face to answer Kaiba's question as he was focused on his brother doing a card reading with their duel monsters cards. He had already been beaten by Atem earlier and already knew what the end result of Kaiba and Atem's duel would be.

"Probably because there is no electricity in this 'civilization forsaken spot in the middle of nowhere' as you put it."

Ryou nodded as Yugi next to him was explaining the details of Mana's deck to her.

"So this is the Sage's Stone.."

Mana interrupted then.

"Which allows me to summon Dark Magician to the field when Dark Magician Girl is on the field."

Yugi nodded as he smiled.

"That's very good. I thought you said that you didn't get most of the rules of duel monsters."

Mana shook her head.

"I don't, but you hear enough about certain cards when all the guys at lunch talk about it. Honestly, if there was a school for dueling, it would have many takers."

Mahad vaguely heard his sister's remarks as he explained the finer details of mummification to Rebecca and the Bakura twins(who had asked to listen to).

"And then they took out your lungs, but they left the heart. Oh, and you know how they took out your brains? They took a red hot poker, stuck it up your nose, and then scrambled it all out."

Ryou rubbed his nose as he heard the ending of Mahad's sentence.

"Oh, that's got to hurt."

Rebecca shrugged at the meeker twin.

"It's mummification, you're supposed to be dead when they do this. Although, I have heard of some cases of a person being mummified alive because of a terrible crime. The worst thing you could do was kill a pharaoh or someone of the royal family."

Bakura shrugged.

"Yes well, if I don't make it through this place, please don't put me down for mummification."

Atem nodded as he gathered his cards back together.

"Likewise. Considering what just happened today with those diggers."

Mahad nodded as he turned back to Solomon and Arthur, who had rejoined them recently.

"Yeah. What exactly happened to them again?"

Arthur began to explain.

"Apparently, they were melted."

Solomon nodded as he went on.

"Salt acid, apparently. They tried to get into some secret compartment and it got on them. It was basically an ancient bobby trap for tomb robbers."

Bakura looked up interested.

"What was in the compartment?"

Arthur shook his head.

"That we don't know. Apparently, it was taken to Maximilian Pegasus as soon as it was uncovered."

Solomon nodded.

"Either way, it makes you wonder how the other treasures of this place are guarded."

Yugi shivered at the thought.

"Maybe this place really is cursed."

As if to emphasize this point, the wind flickered up dying the fire down. Everyone looked at the fire, as if spellbound by it trying to speak to them. The silence of the group speaking volumes.

Seto was the first to break hold of it.

"Oh for the love of…you're all idiots!"

Atem's voice took on a sarcastic tone as he addressed Kaiba.

"I suppose you don't believe in this stuff."

Seto's eyes blazed at the mere insinuation of him entertaining such thoughts.

"No, I do not! I believe if I can see it and I can touch it, then it's real! That's what I believe."

Bakura took out his knife and sharpened it.

"Well, I believe in being prepared."

Atem nodded.

"Likewise."

Mana looked at the two with a surprised look on her face.

"It's rare to see you two agree on anything."

Atem and Bakura caught each other's eyes and shared a simultaneous shrug. Then Bakura remembered what he wanted to ask earlier.

"Question Mahad, how come those scarabs in the ruins would eaten my flesh off when most eat dug? Also, how come they're alive after some thousands of years?

Mahad considered the question before answering.

"Well, the first time archaeologists came across these scarabs was in some ruins in the 1930's**(AN: Reference to The Mummy)**. The hieroglyphics they translated, suggested that the priests used some ancient spell to keep them alive so long as they were enclosed within the protective covering. As for the flesh thing, that I think is also a result of the spell. It was meant for the worst of people, like royal tomb robbers, who were mummified alive. They would placed int eh sarcophagus and the prisoner would be eaten alive very slowly by these bugs."

Bakura shivered. Suddenly, he felt very glad he was not a royal tomb robber in ancient Egypt.

**(AN: Presently, at least.)**

But then he was distracted as his keen eyes peered over where his group was and further down into the main camp, where they seemed to great deal of noise and movement going on.

"What's that?"

Ryou looked intrigued and tried to get a better look at what his twin was looking at.

"What's what?"

In just a few moments, the camp had become even more agitated. The sounds of guns fired and the tents started to blaze. Riders charged through clothed in dark except for one in white.

Mana had focused her eyes on such out of place figure.

"Hey, that person in white…"

Mahad stood up immediately.

"Mana, stay right here!"

With that, he rushed down toward the mayhem possessing obviously no regard to his own safety.

Obviously, Mana rushed after him.

"What are you doing you idiot?"

Atem wasn't to be left behind.

"Didn't your brother just say to stay here?"

Bakura shared a look with Seto Kaiba, a momentary truce made with a consensus of understanding. Then Bakura pulled out three guns he 'borrowed' in the same manner he got his new knife, patting his trusty knife at his side. He shot a look at the older gentlemen and the youngers of the group.

"You all, stay here. Understood?"

The older men nodded(too old) as did the younger twins(can't fight with anything outside their brains), but Rebecca was not to be cowed.

"Why can't we go down?!"

Seto groaned at the American's childishness.

"Because you would just be in the way."

Bakura nodded and threw the guns at the youngers of the group, each of them catching the guns with good reflexes.

"Yes, but you might be able to do something here. If anyone tries to come up here, aim the gun and fire. See if you can get some down there. Do you understand?"

The three nodded, Rebecca somewhat pacified at the concession.

Bakura directed his finger from the older men to the others.

"Help them shoot."

With that, both Bakura and Seto went down to save the idiots that just charged into that camp head first without a strategy. A rare occurrence to see them on the same side.

Of course, it was actually a lot worse up close than far away. Riders used both torches, knives, and guns to take out the mass of archaeologists that had camped themselves near the entrance into the temple.

The Ishtars(all dressed in the traditional dark garb of the Tomb Keepers and their eye symbol) were directing their brethren in this case of mayhem and destruction. Odion was taking care of the bodyguards for Maximilian Pegasus and Marik was setting fire to some of the tents.

Ishizu was searching, for what only she could say. Between the bullets(Ryou and Rebecca had both managed to get one of them off his horse, Yugi missed horribly), shouting, curses mixed in different languages; her eyes scanned the crowd, hoping to get a glance at the golden items. She had even dismounted form her horse in order to get a better look.

_Where are they?_

Of course, she was interrupted from her thoughts as she was grabbed into an almost head lock. She struggled from the touch, but a small portion of her body relaxed. As if her body knew these arms and they trusted them.

She felt her face flush at such thoughts. What was she thinking? She tried to bite this man or kick his soft spot.

"Okay, Stop that!"

Ishizu felt herself freeze before she looked back at her captor. Her eyes then widened.

"YOU?!"

Mahad didn't cringe at her reaction, rather he seemed more angry.

"Shouldn't I be saying that at you? What are you crazy people after?"

Ishizu felt herself still her tongue as she got out of his grasp. She didn't want to give away too much.

Mahad got out his spare pocket knife, a thing he had confiscated from Bakura during his days working at the Kame Game Shop(Confiscate, not steal; he tried to tell himself).

"Just so you know, I will use this."

Ishizu looked at him challengingly.

"What, not scared of hurting a lady?"

This just made Mahad even angrier.

"I don't see a lady here. All I see is some girl who snuck into my room and tried to kill me. Or do you have a nicer sister here?"

That set Ishizu off as she got out her over dagger and the two clashed in their own private duel. Oblivious to anyone else around them.

Atem, on the other hand, had moved on to the many desert people he had currently disarmed. He just threw one to the ground before he remembered he was not there just to fight. His eyes scanned until he found Mana and the sight surprised him.

Mana was just standing in the middle of the chaos, no attempts to move or dodge. Her eyes were glazed over as her face was a blank mask, a million miles away from the desert she currently was.

And she was about to get run into by a black horse. Atem charged at her.

"Look out!"

Luckily enough, he managed to get there in time. As the two were on the ground, Atem groaned as he regained his bearings. He then proceeded to shake Mana.

"What were you thinking? Mana? MANA?!"

None of this changed Mana's current blank state. She only vaguely heard the handsome duelist speak as the sounds faded away around her, the screams become fainter, as she traveled back to a palace far far away from this place…from this time…..

* * *

_She clutched herself behind the pillar, she knew she wasn't supposed to be here. She wasn't officially a part of the court. In retrospect, she probably should have stayed with her friend in their rooms(her pale haired friend was leading some of the servants to safety).But she had gotten a horrible feeling and though she was no seeress like the high priestess_, _she got the feeling she had to trust it._

_Now she was starting to realize this might not have been her best idea. Everyone was panicked as they realized the loud noises coming outside the audience chamber. The pharaoh was on his throne, his six priests surrounding the foot of his throne._

_The one with a hood over his face, a glint of gold where his eye should be, had turned to her master with the Millennium Ring._

"_Mahad, what is it?!"_

_The Ring glowed bright gold and then died down. It seemed as it gave him pain._

"_The Millennium Ring! It seems we are in the presence of pure evil!"_

_As if to answer the silent question of 'who the hell is breaking into the palace?', a guard was thrown into the room to the ground. A man dressed in a blood red robe and much golden jewelry. He carried a great sack._

_She held in the gasp as she realized she knew exactly who this person was._

_The thief with the scars on his cheek responded in a cocky tone._

"_Pardon the interruption, but apparently someone left me off the guest list!"_

_This didn't upset her love as he looked upon the thief in disgust._

"_Who in the Underworld are you?" _

_With the glimpse of the master mind behind the common, the rest of the court fled using their good common sense. Leaving the pharaoh and the priests on their own._

_The wild rogue advanced further into the room, taking in the obvious discomfort and surprise from the priests in pleasure._

"_Well, we finally meet Pharaoh."_

_This didn't amuse the one he was addressing._

"_That doesn't answer my question."_

_The priest with dressed in blue and white with the strange hat responded then._

"_He's obviously a thief."_

_Her master stepped forward then, for once in sync with the priest in blue._

"_And he should now that there is no way in all the gods' names that we would allow him anywhere near you pharaoh!"_

_This caused an amused reaction from the thief._

"_How cute. It makes me want to puke. I've seen better actors in the taverns and the whorehouses. Whatever, all the Millennium Items are here this time."_

_This surprised the amethyst gaze of the pharaoh._

"_The Millennium Items? What do you want with them?"_

_The thief smirked._

"_That's for me to know and you to find out. I'll start by taking all of your Millennium Items!"_

_The thief's eyes searched the room, catching Mana's eyes in the pillars above. His face didn't change and his face didn't change, but it did linger on her before settling back on the court. His voice became strangely soft before rising in rage._

"_And some other things. But mostly revenge!"_

* * *

Marik leaned closer to Odion as they watched their sister struggle with one of the archaeologist, with long brown hair and deep dark eyes. The chaos all around them still persisting.

"You think we should help her?"

Odion gave his younger brother a deep look then gestured back to the fighting..

"I think she's doing pretty well on her own."

Marik nodded, pitying the poor fool who was now receiving his sister's wrath. His eyes scanned over his surroundings until they became wide at the scene.

The brunette girl's emerald eyes glazed over, an expression that was too familiar to the blonde Ishtar. It was the expression his sister wore whenever she got a vision, something that had become far too frequent of an occurrence.

The familiar star tipped and tricolored headed teen kept trying to arouse her.

"Snap out of it, Mana! Come on!"

Marik couldn't keep the thought bursting out of him.

"ISHIZU!"

Ishizu stopped her current tussle to stare at her brother.

"What is it Marik?!"

He pointed to the girl.

"Look!"

She followed his finger to find her eyes widening as she saw his point. However, this caused her opponent to see what caught his adversary's attention.

"Mana!"

He rushed over to his sister as Atem stood aside for him. The Ishtar siblings watched as Mahad tried to get a response out of Mana.

"Mana, come back! Wake up!"

This prompted a groan as she blinked her eyes rapidly. She then rubbed her eyes.

"What happened?"

Mahad then glared at his sister.

"Didn't I tell you to stay up at camp?"

Atem nodded.

"You did. She ignored you. Anyway, what was that? You were about to get run over by that horse!"

Mana looking surprised as she tried to school her words into a somewhat sane response. No way they would belive the truth, best to put in some truth.

"What are you talking about? I don't remember that. I remember hearing sounds and screaming, then everything disappeared into a haze."

Mahad and Atem both searched her face, as if see if she was telling the truth. None of them said anything for a moment.

Marik shared a look with his sister, coming to a decision. Marik raised his hand and called out to the other Tomb Keepers.

"ENOUGH! We've shed enough blood, we'll leave."

He then fixed his lavender eyes on Atem's crimson tinged ones.

"But you must leave this place. Leave or die. You have two days!"

With that, Marik ran to his horse. Ishizu followed after glancing at Mahad and did suit.

Bakura then came over, his knife unsurprisingly more bloody than the last time it had been used.

"Are all of you alright?"

The group nodded as Atem answered, as he helped Mana up.

"Yeah, relatively."

Bakura stared after the retreating dark cloaked figures.

"Still, there must be treasure here. For them to guard this place so faithfully."

Mahad shook his head.

"These are a desert people. They value water, not gold."

Atem put in his thoughts, moving away from Mana.

"Then what was their purpose? Why did they want us to leave?"

But before the men/boys could discuss this further, Mana began to fall as she lost her support.

"Whoa!"

But before she hit the desert sand, Atem caught her again.

"You okay?"

Mana stared up at Atem, noticing once more how attractive and reassuring his eyes were, how firm his muscles were as his arms were wrapped around her. She just nodded though as they stared into each other's eyes. The feeling of familiarity flared up once more.

"Yeah, a little wobbly though."

Mahad, for some reason, didn't like the scene he was seeing. He felt like grabbing Atem by the ear and dunking him face first into the nearest oasis. He cleared his throat to end the moment.

"Let's get back to camp."

Bakura nodded.

"I'll meet back there with you guys when I find the CEO. He got into some tussle with an idiot who tried to take that card locket of his."

Both Mahad and Atem cringed. Seto was quite protective of the picture it contained and wouldn't be surprised if the poor fool was slightly maimed.

As the three moved back to the camp site, Mana stayed close to Atem's side, not willing to let go any time soon. She made a decision to have a private talk with him once everyone had gone over the event in detail.

Just the two of them. The thought made her redden even more.

* * *

**REVIEW!**

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	14. Fire in the Moonlight

**V.E.: Oh mummy, mummy, mummy. Why must I blessed and cursed with new ideas while I would very much like the chance to finish the old ones before starting on the new? Though I would do a request if I like the idea. Ah, the places you mind inspiration.**

**Why am I yammering on like this? I am well aware that very few read the author's note or really care what I have to say so long as I update(I've been in the same position). I don't so much care what you think as long as someone reviews.**

**Getting off topic. This is a more fluff chapter than the last. Anyone who has seen the movie knows this is when the romance sparks more. So finally, some concrete vaseshipping!**

**Roll on!**

* * *

There was something about fire that entranced Atem Muto, the campfire that was burning bright in this diamond starred night prompting such thoughts. Maybe because it reminded him of the desert. Maybe because it was untamable, dangerous and passionate like emotions that raged in a person's heart. Or….maybe there was no explanation for why he felt this way.

He was currently the only one in his party that was visibly awake. By some miracle, everyone else had managed to find some sleep after the chaos several hours earlier. Yugi was currently huddled up in his blankets, while the Bakura twins were snoring like drunken bears hibernating. Seto had managed to settle in some uncomfortable position while Rebecca had one tent, the older men of the group sharing their rest.

Atem smirked as he noticed a certain brunette was turned away from his direction. Or so he had thought.

"You know if you're up, you don't have pretend."

Slowly, she got up. Stetching slightly, she turned back to him.

"How could you tell?"

"How did you know it was me on the boat?"

Mana smiled slightly.

"I just knew."

Atem smiled and gestured to his side.

"Same here. Now why don't you come over here? The desert is cold at night."

With the invitation, Mana got up and made her way to him. Sitting by his side, she was almost touching him.

"Thanks."

Atem nodded.

"You're welcome."

Mana shook her head.

"No, I mean for saving me when that horse was about to charge me."

Atem took the moment to poke the fire slightly, stirring the orange red flames.

"It's nothing."

"No, it is."

Atem favored Mana a smirk, making her blush slightly.

"You really are stubborn."

Mana's voice took on a teasing tone.

"Maybe. Maybe not."

Atem chuckled.

"Alright, how about this? You forgive me for the 'accident' when we first met, my saving your neck is square, and we start all over. Friends?"

Mana was completely still for a moment, before nodding with a shy smile.

"Friends then. But just so you know, I will never duel you."

Atem's eyebrows lifted up questioningly.

"Oh, why not?"

"Because it would be duelist's suicide to willingly challenge you. I'm a beginner, but I'm not stupid."

Atem chuckled.

"Alright, no duels. But there is something I do want."

"What's that?"

Atem looked at her, noticing that she was shivering. He took one of his blankets off to the side and wrapped it around her. Mana gave him a smile for it.

"Thanks."

Atem smiled.

"You're welcome. What I want is to finish our conversation from the boat."

Mana's face became blank.

"Oh."

The night's silence pervaded their atmosphere, even more deathly quiet than any normal surroundings. There were no cars, no multitudes of other people; just the crackling of the fire and the two of them.

Atem sighed before he spoke again.

"I know I'm probably breaching some taboo subject, but why are you here? Why couldn't you have just stayed at home? You hate it here, you've made it no secret. So why?"

Mana was silent gathering her thoughts before she went over to where she was from before, grabbing her satchel. She returned to Atem's seated side, pulling out a scrap of what seemed to be paper. She may have lost her sketchbook, but another item of value still remained. She held the photo out to Atem which he took and examined with interest.

Upon seeing it, he had a very good idea what Mana was showing him. The setting was a beautiful park in the spring, the cherry blossoms were blooming beautifully. An older man that looked very much like Mahad was next to a woman with black hair and emerald green eyes smiling in patient exasperation. Below them were two children with brown hair, the boy a carbon copy of his father and the younger girl a brown haired and more mischievous version of her mother.

Atem glanced to Mana, waiting for the confirmation to the identity of people in the picture he already knew.

"Those are my parents. They died in a car accident over five months ago."

Atem was taken back. OH. That explained a lot. His silence gave Man the chance to continue.

"I've lived with my brother since then. Do you have any idea what it's like to lose your parents and then to leave the place you've called home since you were born to live with a brother that feels more like a stranger to you than your relative? What's it's like for your life, everything you've ever known, to completely crumble and vanish? To have no say in anything because you're the younger and you should just move on from the people you loved and who raised you now that they're…."

Tears were breaking out and now Mana couldn't hold back the sobs she had tried so hard to control. Before she could completely break down, Atem had grabbed a hold of her stroking her back. For some reason, she felt comforted. As she poured out her heart and tears, she never wanted to move from the arms she had found herself in.

For what seemed to stretch into hours, Mana finally calmed down. She slightly left Atem's arms, but she was still close to him, oh so close.

"I'm sorry. You shouldn't have seen that."

Atem was silent for a moment.

"No, you should cry. You don't have to be ashamed. I shouldn't have judged you, I didn't know."

Mana shrugged slightly.

"Well, now you do. Now it's my turn."

"For what?"

Mana managed a small smile.

"To be asking the questions. I don't get you."

Atem had no idea what she was getting at.

"What don't you get?"

Mana smiled as she gestured around her, indicating the people she spoke.

"I get your brother, I get the Bakura twins, hell I even get Seto Kaiba. But you I don't get. Why are you here?"

Atem smiled as he realized what she menat.

"Oh, I see what you mean."

He took a moment to hold the Millennium Puzzle out to her before going on.

"Egypt is in my blood. I guess you could say it all began with this."

Mana's eyes betrayed slight skepticism.

"With a golden upside down block of a pyramid?"

"Over thirty five years ago, my grandfather came to Egypt in search of the greatest game ever played. His search led him to the Tomb of a Pharaoh and to a treasure box containing the pieces of this thing. Unfortunately, he didn't have the best choice in guides."

Mana felt her curiosity intrigued.

"What happened?"

"One of the thieves shot him and left him to fall to his death on the edge of an abyss. Luckily, or unluckily for the thief, he was apparently consumed by some curse of the tomb. My grandfather managed to find his way out of the tomb, but he felt himself wandering him hopelessly lost and past out. He should have died out there."

"So how come he didn't?"

This prompted a small smile from Atem.

"Because a Bedouin shepherd girl found my grandfather collapsed near a small oasis where she had been watching her uncle's sheep. Grandpa spent the next couple of weeks healing from the bullet wound which was pulled out by a rather inexperienced doctor. Although, he has very fond memories of that time."

With that, Atem released the Puzzle and let it fall back to his chest. Then, he reached into his shirt, toward the very glint of silver Mana had observed about a week or so earlier. His hang grasped the object, pulled his closed fist out, and opened it.

In his hands, lay silver cartouche, very much like a pharaoh would have used to inscribe his name in, but this one was blank.

"After he was fully recovered, the girl, Aisha, kept following him around and even went so far as to go with him when he left, leaving her tribe and what little family she had. She was my grandmother and this cartouche was the first gift he ever gave to her, he had bought it when he first came to Egypt. So technically, Yugi and I are one fourth Egyptian. She died a little before Yugi and I were born, a year or two before our dad did."

Mana's eyes softened.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I don't have any real memories of him, I must have been one or two when he died. I guess it's more accurate to say I miss the idea of him. How Yugi feels I have no idea, that's his own feelings. I certainly didn't know him the way you knew your parents."

Mana observed Atem for a moment.

"You know, you do look a little some of those pictures of the pharaohs. I guess you do have Egypt in you."

Atem gently shoved her, laughing slightly.

"Stop it."

Mana laughed as she answered.

"Okay, okay. Well, you have a reason for being here. I don't."

Atem looked at her strangely at that comment.

"I don't think that's true. You have a reason for being here, just like the rest of us. It may not be a willing reason, but it's still a reason."

Mana shrugged before getting up.

"Well, I'm going to try and get some sleep. This has been an interesting chat."

She tried to offer back the blanket to which Atem shook his head.

"Keep it. You need it more than I do."

Mana favored him a small smile.

"Thanks."

Then she leaned close to his cheek, giving a small kiss. Then she pulled away, not noticing the small blush on his cheek.

"Good night."

To which, Mana walked to the tent which Rebecca claimed, not noticing that Atem was staring after her intently. His cheeks flushing, own heart having its own fire igniting.

* * *

_She wanted to scream, to cry in fury; but she knew this wasn't proper as she was currently in a place of the gods. The victory feast, which was usually a cause of celebration, was the reason for her despair. Or more so, the actions of the person she had deemed her best friend._

_She walked the stone temple, completely alone. Solitude seemed to suit her better these days. Besides, she felt better with the paintings of the gods that wouldn't answer her, than the two timing snakes that were the royal court._

'_They're not all bad. You know that.'_

_Still, she couldn't help, but feeling so sternly on the other side of a line. The pharaoh had been perfectly capable of enjoying himself without her, the rest of the court went with him._

'_Why am I here?'_

_The question replayed in her head over and over again. For the first time in years, she wanted to fly and leave this place for good, consequences be damned. Anything would be better than…having to see him love someone else._

_She found herself in front of a statue of the Goddess Ma'at, goddess of truth and balance. The pillars gave way to the elements, the full moonlight illuminating the statue. She wanted to speak to her, to ask the questions in heart to the gods, but she knew full well they wouldn't be answered._

_The tears were starting to well themselves in her eyes. She knew that the water works were going to start. Ah well, better that only the gods see them. That way she could present herself to everyone later. It wasn't like anyone really kept track of her at this kind of stuff._

_But that mood was broken by a soft and soothing voice._

"_Mana?"_

_She turned around sharply to find the very subject of her thoughts, looking so unsure of himself._

_His eyes widened at the sight of her tears._

"_Mana, you're crying."_

_She turned her back to him, not wanting him to see her weakness. Furious at him for her own feelings._

"_Go away!"_

_He cringed at her response. He walked closer to her laying a hand on her shoulder._

"_Mana, please. Tell me what's wrong."_

_She turned around to slap his hand, an action that startles him even more. No one has ever slapped the pharaoh after he was crowned._

"_I said go away! Go back to your whores and leave me in peace! You've been doing that up until now just fine, haven't you?"_

_That made him even cringe more. She had seen what he had been doing, of course she was angry. Of all the things she could have seen…_

"_Mana, let me explain…"_

_Her voice was furious as she interrupted him._

"_Oh, I understand. You have to settle down with one of those girls, someone who would make you a lovely queen. And you no longer have time for the person who's been your best friend since childhood. I'd have preferred to hear you say it, at least then I could just as easily choose to forget about you!"_

_Her statement being said, she made her attempt to storm away, but she was stopped by her friend. Though, he was struggling to hold her._

"_Let go of me!"_

"_Not until you listen to me."_

_She shot him a dirty look._

"_And what makes you think I'm going to listen to you?"_

_He didn't flinch this time, his gaze was resolute._

"_Because we are friends Mana, that's the truth. I didn't know how to tell you about this… I was afraid of how you'd react."_

_Mana stopped struggling for a moment to answer._

"_I would have preferred honesty. I've never lied to you all these years we'd been friends."_

_He flinched at the past tense of the last sentence, but he didn't back down._

"_I didn't lie to you! I just didn't tell you."_

_She shot him a scorching look._

"_Which is just as bad as lying to my face! So why are you here now?!"_

"_Kisara said she saw you coming this way. She wanted to come talk to you herself, but Mahad and Seto had gotten into an argument, they'd been drinking too much. She and Isis are currently diffusing the tension."_

_This allowed her a small smile._

"_Yeah, that sounds like her."_

_She found herself saying the words before she even really thought about it._

"_Prince if I told you I wanted to leave, what would you do?"_

_This catches him by surprise, he had never heard her talk like this._

"_Mana, what are you…"_

"_Exactly what I'm saying. Would you stop me? Would you send the guards after me if I left, have me executed like the law dictates? I need to know because I just can't stay in place that was never mine to begin with." _

_This stuns him for a moment, he has no idea of what to say so he falls silent. After a couple of moments, he answers in an even tone._

"_Mana, you are not a servant or a slave, to me or to anyone else. You're just as free as anyone in this court and you can leave if you wish. This palace is not your prison though you're wrong that you don't have a place here."_

_Her eyes widened in surprise._

"_But, the law…"_

"_I won't send the guards after you, if Mahad wanted to I would order him otherwise. If you leave, you wouldn't be a magician in training anymore, but I will not force you to stay."_

_She takes this in for a moment, stilling her body. Choices and options are presented before her, one of her own making. At the same time, there was a sinking feeling. That he was just letting her go so easily. What did that say other than, 'I don't need you.'?_

_She straightened herself and took his hand off of her._

"_Alright then, I'll go to my room to pack."_

_For a couple of moments, it seemed as if he was fully willing to let her do as she said as she was going to do. He just stared after her leaving before grabbing her and pushing her to the wall._

_She struggled, but she wasn't making any progress with the king's full strength on her._

"_Let me go! Didn't you just say..?"_

_He was just breathing, being so close to her now affected to him. She noticed his silence, even stopping her struggle while waiting for an explanation._

"_I know what I said. And it's true."_

"_Then, why.."_

_He drew even closer to her._

"_My father once told me something, 'If you love someone, then you'll let them go. And if they love you, they'll come back.' Then I said, 'And what if they don't?' Then my father answered with the most serious look I'd ever seen of him, 'Then they were never yours to begin with.'. I'm giving you choice or at least I should be."_

_This just made her even more confused, though she felt herself blush. Love? Did he mean as a friend or as a…?_

_He came closer to her though._

"_I should let you go, but I don't want you to. I never want you out of my life and it took until just now at the banquet to see that. You want to know why?"_

_He came even closer, their lips almost touching for a moment before he went in on her lips full on. Her eyes widened before giving into the sweetness, she started to kiss back. Opening her mouth to continue the kiss, she ran her arms up his arms making him respond even more passionately._

_Finally, he did stop to whisper in her ear, tickling it and turning it read with his mere breath._

"_Because you are the only girl I can see spending the rest of my life with. The only person I can see as my queen. I love you Mana."_

_With that declaration, she murmured as she drew closer to his lips once more though not touching._

"_Prince…"_

_The irritation showed in his voice, though it was still gentle._

"_Not Prince, not Pharaoh. You're not to call me that again."_

_She smiled as she wrapped her arms around his neck._

"_Then what am I supposed to call you?"_

"_My name. Atem."_

_And then the prince closed the small gap between them, reigniting their passion from before, his now lover responding and synchronizing with him. As the moonlight peered even more through the sanctuary, the only witness to this moment, the victory feast in their minds may has well have been in another kingdom._

* * *

**V.E.: Eureka! Done! Now I can get to BEC later this week!**

**I'm also submitting some original pieces of mine to my school's literary magazine. Please dear Lord, I would love that $75 prize! I hope my poem and my short story is enough.**

**Next chapter: Opening the sarcophagus and a discussion of the curse. Along with the preparation for the raising, I think the actual raising will be the next chapter.**

**Review with any comments or questions you may have on this chapter. **


	15. Releasing

**V.E..: Wow, I'm surprised at the nice feedback I'm getting. At the same time, I feel incredibly nervous as I start on this chapter. After this, it's like I'm jumping off a cliff. I only have a hazy idea what to do, but at least it's an idea.**

**Oh, I love school when I get my homework done before I come home! Makes it easier for me to write. My parents are out of the town for the weekend, so I get home early and therefore get more done. I know how impatient ye readers get.**

**Well, here's the release. Next is the awakening.**

* * *

"So where do you want it?"

Mahad pointed to the wall as Bakura, Atem, and a rather bad tempered Seto were moving the sarcophagus from the stone coffin. The excitement could be heard clearly in his voice.

"Over there, right up against the wall. Oh, I've dreamt about this since I was a kid!"

Seto's sarcastic remark cut through as the sarcophagus was set exactly as brunette wanted it.

"You dreamed about dead people Kurozaki? And I thought you were weird now."

Mana rolled her eyes as she and Yugi and Bakura watched the boys from a safe distance(in Mana's opinion).

"You try growing up with him."

Mahad shot his sister an irate look.

"You're not helping."

Mana raised her hand, as if waiting to be called on in class.

"I actually have a decent question. Why do you two hate each other?"

That actually took Mahad by surprise before he narrowed his eyes at the CEO. Kaiba rolled his eyes in response.

"Oh please Kurozaki, let it go why don't you?"

"Never. Gonna. Happen."

Kaiba pointed his thumb at Yugi.

"Yugi's let it go."

That got Atem to glare at his rival.

"I never said I did."

Mana looked at Yugi with a questioning look on her face.

Yugi shrugged uneasily as he answered.

"It's a long story. You see, Kaiba challenged my Grandpa to Death T for his Blue Eyes…"

Mahad's voice carried a rather hard quality.

"Which he ripped up so it could never be used against him."

Kaiba's eyes flared.

"Do we really have to go through this here?"

Yugi cringed before he continued what he was doing.

"Let's just say your brother is not happy about it."

Mana got the impression that there was more to that story than Yugi was saying at the moment, but she just nodded and settled with that for now.

"Alright."

Bakura's irritation showed through in his voice, jabbing his head towards the stones.

"Can we get this over with please? These monster tablets are giving me the creeps."

Ryou nodded, his face seeming paler than usual if possible.

"I agree."

Mahad nodded as he turned back to the coffin and he stepped forward to the more human like container. At the very least it was decorated more like a human. There was no gold or bright colors, only deep black stone. But Mahad ran his hands below the crossed arms, his face in wonder.

"Look at this, the sacred spells have been chiseled off on along with his name."

Seto's eyebrow lifted skeptically.

"Who cares? Does it matter?"

Mahad shot a withering glare at Kaiba before turning back to the chiseled part.

"It's a really big deal Kaiba. To have no name on your body meant that in the afterlife the gods would not recognize you, condemning you to wander the Duat forever. No spells to protect you from entering the Underworld. This man was condemned in this life as well as the next."

Bakura looked at the stone casket before touching the Eye of Wdjat to his side of the coffin.

"Well, not a very popular fellow. What's with this eye symbol? It's everywhere in this temple."

Just as he said those words, the eye to the side of the coffin started to glinted as the Millennium Ring and Puzzle began to slightly glow with it. Much like before, the sarcophagus was silent as the glow died down except for a noticeable sound.

CLICK!

Once more, this left the group silent as they wondered at this strange happening.

Seto rolled his eyes, not any way giving way to some of the thoughts his fellow tomb enters were entertaining, namely magic and ghosts.

"Well, let's see what's inside so we can get out of here already. This place got boring yesterday."

At this statement, the three capable males started to do just what was suggested. The heaved with great difficulty, as the others at a safe distance had a mixture of expressions; Mahad in anticipation, Yugi and Ryou in somewhat fear, and Mana in a growing dread coming upon her.

Finally, after a great struggle, the top came off with a dust of something and the mummy popping out; as if trying to catch it's openers aware.

Prompting rather sudden responses, as the younger twins took steps back with small screams, the older suppress their small yelps, Mana screaming in detail as she hid behind Mahad as a shield.

Mahad threw up his hands and turned his head before waiting a moment then turning back. He groan as he looked back at the mummy.

"Oh gods, I hate it when they do that!"

Mana shot a questioning look at her brother.

"You've seen this before?!"

Mahad shot a dry look at his sister.

"You'd be surprised."

Atem spoke then as his eyes ran over the mummy.

"Mahad, is the mummy supposed to look like this?"

Mahad scanned his eyes up and down.

"No, I've never seen a mummy look like this before."

It was true enough, Mahad hadn't. Never before had he seen a mummy clothed in something aside from bandages. The dark robes with intricate detail along with the fur gave off the impression of some warrior priest of sorts. The mummy also had long silver white hair, which seemed to have grown after the person's death. The mouth open as if it had been screaming. In the center of his robes, a mask(which looked like it had been painted yesterday) was before the crossed arms.

After some closer examination, Mahad spoke once more.

"It's definitely male. And yet he's still…"

Bakura and Atem finished the statement together.

"Juicy."

Mahad nodded in wonder.

"Yes. He must be over three thousand years old and it seems as if he's….well that he's still…decomposing."

Mana's eyes had wandered to the part of the coffin that had been taken off as she bent down and pointed to the indentations on the inside.

"Hey, what do you make of this?"

Mahad knelt down to check as everyone tried to get closer.

"These marks….they were made by…"

His fingers clenched, tracing an almost identical pattern.

"Finger nails. This man was buried alive."

Yugi got close enough to where Mahad was. His own fingers finding its own indentations.

"And he left us a message. _'Ma'at be damned. When Darkness rises, Death is only the beginning.'_ Wonder what that means."

Mahad shook his head.

"I don't know."

Then his eyes caught the side of the sarcophagus, the detailed hieroglyphics.

"But there might be a way to find out. Yugi, help me out over here."

* * *

Mana looked over her shoulder from the fireplace which was illuminating the darkness of the nightfall, lighting up slightly as her brother and Yugi came over. She was surrounded by Atem, Bakura, Ryou, and Rebecca. The elders had turned in early and Seto wanted to try for an internet signal(for the tenth time).

"There you two are! We thought about sending Bakura in there just in case the mummy had revived itself and tried to eat your brains."

Mahad groaned as he sat down and opened his hand to show his prize.

"It's zombies who eat a person's brains Mana, not mummies even if they could rise again. Look what I found in our mummy's sarcophagus; scarab skeletons. They must be the same type of magic scarabs like the one imprisoned on the wall. These little things can stay alive for years on human flesh."

Atem looked over at the long haired brunette with a unquestioning look on his face.

"So let me get this straight; not only was this guy mummified alive, the embalmers also threw these bugs into his coffin and they slowly ate him while he was conscious to all this?"

Mahad put emphasis on what he said next.

"_Very_ slowly."

Bakura took this opportunity to poke the fire place.

"Well, it doesn't seem like our guy was a very popular fellow. What do you think he did to get that punishment?"

Mahad shrugged.

"I don't know. The only thing I can figure is that he must have been some high ranking priest or noble that did something horrible."

Yugi looked over at Mahad in question.

"Do you think it had something to do with a broken oath? I mean, the tomb said it was the 'oath keeper's cell.'."

"It's possible I suppose. Hey, how are our neighboring diggers doing?"

Rebecca flexed up her glasses as she answered.

"Much better than yesterday. No one melted, no one killed. Although, they didn't really find anything."

This put a scowl on Bakura' face.

"So we come all this way out here, get attacked by a crazy desert tribe twice might I add, and there's no treasure?"

Ryou responded to his twin.

"It wouldn't be ours if we found it anyway, besides I'd make sure you couldn't sneak it past customs."

The scowl deepened before Ryou sighed.

"How about we sort out our deck again? But before that I want to do a reading."

His elder twin didn't say anything, but nodded. Therefore Ryou went to the deck and began to shuffle the deck.

Mahad took a breath before continuing.

"Anyway, Yugi and I have been doing some reading on the sarcophagus."

Rebecca looked very interested.

"What did it say?"

Mahad shook his head.

"I couldn't read most of it. Only the general curses against the man…"

Yugi pipped up then.

"It was some big curse I think. Of course I'm not an expert on Ancient Egyptian curses."

Mahad shook his head.

"Yugi, just tell them what you read."

That got everyone's full attention, even Ryou who looked up from the formation he was arranging his cards in a pattern which was not uncommon for fortune tellers, not so for duelists.

Yugi gulped before continuing, well aware of the many eyes on him.

"Well, the side of the sarcophagus said; _'Hear now fools who would waken the condemned from the eternal slumber. Should he arise because of your actions, he will bring forth the Shadow Creatures from their Dominion and unleash terror upon the world.'_"

Mana couldn't herself from feeling a chill because of those words. It sounded like a warning, but she reasoned with herself. It was a warning that would not come true. But the last part of the message caught her attention.

"Shadow Creatures? You don't think those could refer to the stone slabs of duel monsters from the chamber, do you?"

Rebecca's eyes widened.

"Maybe! Grandpa and I should check it out tomorrow!"

Off to the side, Ryou's eyes were wide as his reading was complete. He had gone on after Yugi had pronounced the curse in full. In the center of his formation, a dark monster glared up at him.

The meaning was clear; _Darkness shall rise and cover the globe. _

Dark Master-Zorc.

* * *

They had no idea that across the camp, inside Pegasus' tent, that the predictions both old and new, were about to be fulfilled.

* * *

**V.E.: Okay, creepy foreboding. The actual raising will be next chapter, and I am completely in the dark what to do. At least I get a break to do my other stories before I come back to this one.**

**Rather on the short side compared to some of the others, but at least I update.**

**Well, what do you know. Updated a month before my birthday. Happy almost 18****th**** birthday Me!**

**You know the drill boys(and ladies), review!**


	16. Awakening

**V.E.: Oh man, I really am a lazy procrastinator. I should have started on this yesterday. Part of the reason I didn't want to write this was because I knew that this would be a lot longer of chapter compared to the last couple. I mean think about it, this is one of the bigger action scenes. Coupled with that was that I had to find a way to mix in the Yugioh universe and The Mummy universe. Problem with writing fan fiction based on another story. Although, I think I've done pretty well so far.**

**At the same time, I know after this I'll finish BEC. I just hope I can manage to do something close to what my other readers are expecting. **

**I'm also revising what I was going to here. At least from what I originally planned for.**

**Awaken the mummy! Also Weevil and Rex reappear.**

* * *

It was a perfect night and setting for raising the dead by any occult/necrophiliac observer's standards; night of a full moon, the ruins of the ancient temple honoring the Egyptian god of mummification. The wind only slightly disturbed the resting diggers, as if sensing that quiet doom was coming.

Of course, if Pegasus would have been aware of these feelings, he probably wouldn't have cared one way or another.

His impromptu desk had candles in the former corners, all lit. The book had taken center stage for the table, surrounded by several ancient Egyptian parchments; decorated with hieroglyphics and pictures of the gods.

Not that he needed them for translation really. Pegasus could understand every single word from the Millennium Spellbook, probably having something to do with the Millennium Eye if he had to guess. Many of the spells were dark indeed, though he didn't find the original spell that created his Eye along with six other items. Perhaps it vanished from the book once it had served its purpose.

_Ah well, it doesn't matter now. Now I can finish it._

He had spent the entire day going through the book. After the attack the night before, he felt a little bit cautious about going through the book. If he wasn't mistaken those were the Tomb Keepers; guardians to the ancient secrets of Egypt's past. It was about the book, he knew it, it had some part to play.

Yet, he wouldn't be discouraged. This was the moment he had been working for since he created Duel Monsters, since he lost his real eye, since he came to Egypt for the first time.

He would not be deferred, not by anything. He listened for a moment as he took a deep breath, listening to see if someone was there. Finally convinced that no one was listening, he opened the book to the very page of the spell he sought.

He had waited until nightfall to prepare the ritual, Shadow Magic was always more potent in dark places and after sunset.

He thought one last thought before he was firmly convicted to go ahead with the spell, his hands closed around the ceremonial razor, the adzu, used for the opening of the mouth ceremonies during mummification.

_Cecillia…._

He opened his mouth to chant the incantation, not even noticing the powerful feeling he got as he spoke.

"_My lips are parted by bright Ptah,_

_My mouth is opened by the god who rules my birth._

_Thoth defeats Seth to control my movement of lips._

_Aten gives strength and motion to my arms."_

The silver haired CEO was only moderately aware of the winds picking up, though not noticeable enough to wake the people in camp from their slumber. But he couldn't dwell on it now. He knew the basics of spell casting, once set to perform a spell the person cannot turn away from it.

"_My mouth is bestowed by the ones who guard me._

_With the metal of his making Ptah fills my mouth,_

_The same metal that opened all mouths._

_Sekhmet-Wadjet from the west, Sahyt rules all souls._

_I am ruled by them, my mouth is mine._

_My Dream is broken and I Rise and Speak and Live._

_Rise! Speak! Live!"_

With these words, Pegasus could feel magic flowing through him. As he shouted the command,s he directed them all towards the memories of the fair haired woman who had captured his heart forever.

Yet as he finished, he didn't notice that the urge he had during the spell, was completely gone now.

* * *

What the unfortunate CEO(if not now, he will be soon) didn't know is that he wasn't raising his dead love. He was raising something _else_.

Back in the chamber of the stone tablets, the Oath Keeper and Breaker's Cell, the mummy that had scared teenagers earlier that day was still in the same position as they had all left him.

Motionless, Still Juicy.

Until the final words of the spell seem to reach underground to him.

"_Arise! Speak! Live!"_

And with that, the mummy that had been lifeless only seconds ago, gave out an unearthly scream.

The tablets surrounding the sarcophagus like a royal guard, began to glow at the very sound.

* * *

Mana had sprung up and awake before she even realized what she was doing. As she came to catch her breathe outside the tent, she realized she wasn't the only one. The Mutos, the Bakuras, and Seto Kaiba all stirred out of their sleeping bags(none of them were that bothered by sleeping in the desert outside).

About a moment after the youngers of the group woke up, Solomon Muto came out of his tent wiping his eyes shortly followed by Professor Hawkins, Mahad, and Rebecca from the other tent.

Mana was the first to react.

"Did you guys just…"

Atem and Bakura responded.

"Hear that?"

"Feel that?"

Rebecca rubbed her eyes while stifling back a yawn.

"What are you guys talking about? I only got up cause I heard everyone else getting up."

Her grandfather responded as he scanned his eyes around the quiet ruins.

"No Rebecca, can't you feel it? Something is wrong."

His old friend nodded in agreement.

"Yes, there is something in the air that is not quite right…."

As if the gods of Ancient Egypt themselves were listening, the ground shook, unsettling the balance of the group and the diggers in a distance. Nothing was left unshaken by this small quake. Yet as quickly as it came, so it went.

Mahad was the first to exclaim the sentiment shared by everyone's mind.

"What in hell's name…"

Then immediately afterwards, light shot out for the entrance to the underground ruin, creating a light show everyone could see. Even Seto Kaiba was moderately stunned for a moment, though he quickly recovered. Everyone else's jaws might have well have been on the sand.

Eventually, the light died down, only to be replaced by creatures that made most people think that perhaps they were still dreaming.

Yugi was fixed upon the Curse of Dragon in the sky, surrounded by other monsters.

"Oh my gods. They're duel monsters."

Mana spoke in a small voice.

"Mahad?"

"Yeah…"

"Remember when I said Duel Monsters in ancient Egypt was crazy?"

Mahad nodded, still dumb struck as he saw Maha Vailo head over towards the dig site with some other monsters.

"Uh huh."

"I take it back now."

Seto felt like rolling his eyes.

"Oh for the love, it's just some hologram you idiots!"

At that statement, Fire Sorcerer aimed one of her particularly nasty fireballs at the group, causing them to start. Luckily, it didn't hit them, instead illuminating where the fire place ahd flickered not some hours ago.

This was followed by more fireballs as the group was prompted by their self-preservation to run for the their lives, too concerned with running to scream.

As they hurried through to the general chaos, Bakura shot the CEO a withering look.

"Does this feel like an illusion to you Rich Boy?!"

Seto grimaced, but said nothing as he had nothing to contradict the evidence going around him.

As a matter of fact, all of the monsters seemed to be laying siege around them. The Harpy Ladies were currently diving and picking up the archaeologists to only throw them back down some moments later. Celtic Guardian along with several other Warrior monsters were taking down the newly constructed tents.

Even Kuriboh and Watapon were attacking, by dividing themselves and surrounding Chemo the bodyguard in a way to make him seem like a walking pile of fur.

Hearing the groans of Chemo struggle outside his tent, got Maximilian Pegasus to march outside his tent.

"Now what the devil on earth is that racket going…."

He stopped as he saw what he had thought of his creations, destroying everything in their path. He was so in awe he didn't realize Croquet was pushing him away from this obvious destruction. And that group was heading into the very ruins where the light had come from in only to get away from the apparent mess.

For a moment, Mana was content to run away from fireballs. Her group had been drawn into the ruins just like the others. Only Fire Sorcerer seemed intent on following them inside while most of the other monsters, still shooting Fireballs.

Luck seemed to be the only thing keeping them from catching fire as they darted in throughout the passage ways. Bakura in particular seemed pretty adept at dodging dangerous flying objects.

Yugi looked back after a small interlude from the fireballs to find that Fire Sorcerer had gone.

"Hey, she's gone!"

However, as soon as the group stopped at that pronouncement, there was a very audible 'CLICK!" Unsure of exactly what was happening, the assortment of Duelists and older men,were surprised to see thousands of scarabs, a sea of utter black.

And moreover, they were headed towards them.

Yugi uneasily broke the silence with the background of clicking insects.

"Um, are these the flesh eating ones or the dung eating ones?"

His twin answered in a louder and more hysterical tone.

"I don't know, but I don't wanna find out!"

Yugi nodded as they all began running again.

"Right. Talk later, run now!"

Chased by the bugs throughout parts of the underground temple they had yet to see before, they came to a sort of descending staircase.

However, just as they were all about to go down deeper into the tomb, a Harpy Lady appeared out of nowhere. Shrieking as it pleased, she grabbed Mana by the talon and tossed her to a platform across from the stairs.

"AAHH!"

As soon as Mana made contact at the wall of the platform, the wall gave way. Turning around and away from the chamber everyone was in.

Mahad stopped for a moment to see if he saw was correct.

"MANA!"

However, Atem pushed the brunette archaeologist on before he could slow them down too much. Despite his own feelings for the girl who just disappeared.

"Mahad, I know you want to go after her, but we can't stop now!"

"But she's…"

"No buts! Strange as it sounds I get the feeling she'll be okay for a while."

* * *

Pegasus was lost in the underground. His group was scattered and now he was alone in this quiet and dusty passage. He couldn't help but feel a sense of dread in his stomach.

_Don't be ridiculous! That spell was about raising the dead, not setting free monsters! Still…_

He turned around once more, assessing his surroundings. It was quiet, too quiet.

A shiver ran down his spine as he stood completely still. The sounds of what seemed to be footsteps was coming towards him. He tried to access the power of the Millennium Eye, but it was all for naught. The Golden Item couldn't help him this time around.

He slowly turned his head as he found the courage to do so. And nearly found all of that newly summoned up feelings evaporate.

It was a grotesque corpse of a man, decorated in the dark colors of black with purple armor and what seemed to be red fur.

The mummy's mouth moved. What would have incoherent to most people, Pegasus found as clear as his own tongue.

"**What interesting luck I have. A Millennium Item right here and I barely had to walk to it."**

The priest mummy stopped as he examined his caught prey.

"**Ah, yes. You are my successor in the Items. So desperate to bring back your loved one, you gave up your eye for the chance to bring her back. Being once in a position like that, I find your resolve admirable. I would have done the same to bring back my love. But unfortunately, it will not come true."**

Pegasus would have burst in outrage had this been anyone else, but he was too frozen with fear to even comment as the mummy came ever so closer.

"**You have done well, little pawn. Setting up the Shadow Games in this strange age, bringing the Millennium Items here. You even found the reincarnations of people I've known while I was alive, including my son and that insufferable nephew of mine."**

The black outfitted Mummy's hands drew closer to Pegasus' face.

"**Above all, you brought me back to life. And for that I thank you. When time comes that Zorc is resurrected, I will make sure your end is quick. But for that, I need my Eye back."**

Pegasus was still frozen as the mummy brushed the silver hair curtain aside and dug his hand into the socket where the Millennium Item rested. That action caused Pegasus reaction.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

The Mummy was not impressed or altered by his pawn's reaction as he put the bloodied eye back into his socket where it once rested while he was alive. His skin gaining some life back inot as this action was performed.

The shock seemed too much for the flamboyant CEO as he collapsed into the ground.

But at that action, another reaction was prompted, but not by Pegasus.

"OH MY GODS!"

The dark mummy turned to find Mana with her hands over her mouth, her face coloring in way that suggested she wanted to empty her stomach.

The sight of her however, got Aknadin to be surprised.

"**YOU! I should have known you'd be alive too!"**

Mana felt herself walk backwards as the mummy before turning around and breaking out into a full out run. Stopping only for a moment to catch her breath when the mummy was out of sight, Mana questioned the possibility of what she just saw.

_I mean, I know I joked about it, but I never actually expected for it to happen!_

"MANA! There you are!"

Mana turned to find Mahad, Atem, and Bakura running to her. All of the looking worried, Mahad was the first to speak.

"Are you alright?"

Mana was about to answer as she saw past her small crowd and straight at Aknadin the mummy.

"EEP!"

The three turned around to only be shocked for the hundredth time in the last hour or so.

The mummy was no less annoyed than when it saw Mana.

"**Oh joy, I hoped some time before I would see you three again, especially you **_**Pharaoh**_**. Still the Puzzle and the Ring are right here.**

Mana spoke then.

"What are you talking about?!"

Mahad and the other men looked at Mana like she was crazy.

"Mana, what are you talking about?!"

Mana pointed to the mummy, who if you didn't know better seemed surprised by her answer.

"Talking to him! Can't you hear it?"

Bakura seemed just as confused as the other two.

"What are you talking about? I heard a bunch of moans and groans, but no words."

This caused the mummy to chuckle deeply.

"**Oh I see. So only the little magician apprentice is able to hear me. Well in that case, you're not that much of a threat. Are you Mana?"**

Mana took some offense to that.

"Hey! How do you know my name?!"

At that moment, a blast of light seemed to hit Aknadin and the group of four widened their eyes as the female spellcaster Magician's Valkyria appeared before them. She settled herself between the living and the undead.

This only phased Aknadin slightly as he glared at the floating spellcaster.

"**You!? Why does a mere spirit like yourself defy me?!"**

She caught Mana's gaze for only a moment. A calm voice echoed in Mana's mind.

"_Run, I will hold him off as long as I can."_

Mana only felt herself nodding, there was something about that voice that was so familiar. She wanted to stay for some reason, to be with this woman more.

Then she remembered exactly what was going on and she grabbed the males who seemed slightly incapable of speech and dragged them through the tunnel.

Atem was the first to recover from this shock.

"What in the…"

"To quote your brother: Talk later, run now!"

And this seemed to work pretty well until the four reached the entrance. To find themselves surrounded by the very tribe that attacked them only a few nights ago.

Marik Ishtar, the head honcho at the front, addressed the lucky escapees.

"Well congratulations. You just raised the servant to an ancient demon that will destroy the world. Three thousand years of us guarding this sacred place and other secrets and now thanks to you, we are all now royally screwed."

Bakura burst in indignation.

"RAISE! If you mean that thing with the golden eye in his socket, we didn't do anything except take the lid off the sarcophagus."

The lavender eyes flickered to the Ring and the Puzzle before sharing a look with darker green eyes of Odion Ishtar. They both nodded, sharing a simultaneous thought.

He turned back to the small group.

"You should have left when we gave you the warning the other night."

This prompted a sneer from Bakura.

"Oh please. When someone tells me not to do something, I do the opposite for the simple sake of pissing them off."

This got Marik to raise his eyebrow in question before reverting back to his irritated expression he jabbed his neck and several of his dark cloaked brethren began to walk into the temple.

"Leave this to us and get the Duat as far away from here as you can."

Mahad turned to the blonde Tomb Keeper's back as he walked with his bigger and older brother toward the entrance.

"And what about you? Do you have a sure fire way to kill that thing?"

That got Marik to turn back for a moment.

"No, this creature is not like flesh blood. He can't be killed by weapons. But he will come after your Millennium Items, that's a given. Normally, I would have taken those things from you by force, but considering the circumstances, I'd say it's a better idea that they stay with you. Away from here."

With that, he descended into darkness, his Millennium Rod clutched in his hands.

Mahad stared with the rest of them after the group.

"Well, that was polite of them."

For once, Bakura concurred with Mahad.

"Indeed. 'We're all doomed, it's all your fault, get the hell out of our way!' The least they could have done was tell us who they really are."

"HEY GUYS!"

Rebecca came over to the group panting, pointing a findger in the distance.

"You're not going to believe this."

Atem leveled the blonde American with a very even look.

"Rebecca, we've seen Duel Monsters come to life, massive hoard of flesh eating scorpions, and just now a mummy raised from the dead. After all that's happened tonight, I don't think anything will surprise me."

* * *

Atem felt his eyes go very wide as the majority of the group looked upon Ryou and Yugi stroking Curse of Dragon and Guardian Dragon like one would stroke a very loyal dog.

"I take that back."

Seto seemed to be in the ultimate expression of shock.

"This isn't happening. This isn't happening. This can't be real. It must be an illusion."

Bakura threw another irate look Seto's way.

"We heard you the first couple of hundred times. Get over it!"

Yugi stopped petting Curse of Dragons for a moment.

"The Dragons say they'll carry us as far as Luxor. That way we don't have to take camels back home."

Ryou nodded, though he kept petting the blue dragon.

Atem sighed.

"Alright, but when we get back I want a full explanation into how you got those things to stop attacking us and start helping us."

* * *

Weevil's eyes darted around the hallway.

"See anything?"

Rex shook his head.

"Nope."

This gave the two a time to sigh with relief. For the past few days they had been trapped in this dark underground labyrinth with no clear idea on how to get out. They had used up what little they had in provisions they brought along. It was a miracle the two hadn't strangled each other out of sheer frustration and the boredom that comes with being lost.

They had been initially startled by some of the noises they had heard so they were currently moving through the darkness very cautiously.

"What do you think that was all about?"

"No idea."

A rumbling interrupted these thoughts.

"**And what do I have here?"**

The two cowardly duelists turned around ever so slowly and hugged each other in fear. Giant Bugs, Ferocious Dinosaurs; they could deal with. Not so much Demonic Mummies that came out of nowhere.

For a moment, Aknadin just watched them before he made a couple of movements with his hand. Then he spoke again.

**"There, can you understand me now?"**

The two just moderately nodded.

**"Good, I just remembered that not everyone can understand me in this time. I know you well enough through Pegasus. Tell me boys, what would you give to have ultimate power? Enough to crush your enemies."**

That got their attention as Weevil replied.

"How much power?"

That was exactly what Aknadin wanted.

**"Pegasus has finished his role and the pitiful Thief King won't help me this time. I require servants."**

He gave the idea to sink into their heads though he could tell most of this was jibbersh to them. No matter, the less they knew, the better.

**"And I promise you, the rewards will be great. Such as the chance to destroy Atem and Yugi Muto."**

That got Aknadin the dweeb duelists' undivided attention as they answered in unison.

"Where do we sign up?!"

If he could have shown it, his face would be smirking. But first he needed his mask before he left this accursed prison of a temple.

* * *

**V.E.: The chant I got from one of those parodies of mixing in monsters with a classic. Like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, only this one had a mummy theme. I think it's from the Book of the Dead, but I could be wrong.**

**REVIEW!**

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	17. Back to Civilization

**V.E.: Oh man, This fic has been giving me a lot of thinking trouble so much. So much, I'd been wondering whether it would be a good idea to take a brief hiatus from it. I mean don't get me wrong I love this story, I'm just wondering whether it would be a good idea to work on another vaseshipping story, which though I have many of those I have no idea which one. Reason why I put up that new poll on my page.**

**Originally, this was supposed to be one chapter, but after rethinking it I've divided it. This seems to be a thing with me, if I don't feel ready I'll split up the chapter.**

**Someone was saying that I didn't give Atem to much of a role in the story. I guess someone as just muscle and love interest isn't really that personality defining. Then again, I've pretty much assigned Kaiba as our skeptic and Bakura the comic relief.**

**Well, roll on!**

* * *

"I can't believe you're even thinking about sending me home!"

"I'm surpised to hear those words come out of your mouth!"

Atem cringed at the tone of volume as he spied on the Kurozaki siblings through the crack of the door.

The full group had gotten back to Cairo only hours before and naturally headed to their hotel with the majority of their stuff had been stashed for safe keeping. The Dragons vanished in a glimmer of light, perhaps going back to their tablets at the ruins. They had all split up into their respective minor groups, divided by family. All except for Kaiba who had much nicer hotel on the other side of town. Atem just walked by the Hawkins room, where a similar discussion was going on with Rebecca and her grandfather.

Now here he was spying on his friend and crush(though he wouldn't let the former know of it on pain of death).The two seemed to be going through a cycle, Mahad trying to pack things and Mana was putting them back.

Unaware they were being watched, the two brunettes continued their conversation. Mana's voice showed it's indignation clearly.

"Mahad, tell me you're not denying what just happened."

Mahad's eyes narrowed as he once more tried to pack up his coat to only have Mana snatch it back and put it back in its previous place.

"Denying it? Oh, I'm not denying. In fact, I'm rather accepting the fact that a mummy was raised from the dead and may be out to destroy us all!"

Mana sighed as she was hauling her suitcase to the middle of the floor and sat on it; legs crossed as well as her arms.

"Well, I'm not going anywhere."

Mahad groaned before turning to his sister in frustration.

"Mana, I don't think you seem to understand the full gravity of this situation."

Mana pretended to think for a moment.

"Let's see; mummy alive, bad. Us running away, bad idea."

"How is that a bad idea? Matter of a fact, it sounds to me like a very sane and life preservation kind of idea."

Mana glared at her brother right on, challenging him.

"You were perfectly happy to come to Egypt when you thought that Duel Monsters once existed here."

Mahad held his hands apart, pleading with the gods and anyone who would hear him.

"That once existed! And that was before those people in the dark clothes seemed intent on killing us. And to hear this from you! You hated the idea of coming to Egypt!"

Mana retorted this remark.

"Well it doesn't feel right that now that it's going to pieces, that we should just give up and run."

Maahd sighed.

"Mana, this is nothing personal. You're acting as if we personally raised that thing."

Mana's face became unreadable as her eyes darted towards the ground.

"Maybe by letting it out we did."

Mahad was taken back as was Atem outside the door. Neither of them had heard Mana sounding so serious before. She continued her train of thought out loud.

"That mummy….he…"

Mahad looked at his sister, as if prompting her response.

"He…?"

Mana groaned and huffing.

"Forget it!"

She got up and crossed over to the door, opening it to find her spiky haired spy. Who was very taken back.

"Umm..hi. This is a bad time isn't it?"

Mana groaned as she stomped out of the way.

After a few moments, Atem tentatively stepped into the room over to Mahad. The elder seemed quite stressed out, with his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose.

Atem looked sheepishly over at his friend.

"I put my foot in it, didn't I?"

Mahad sighed.

"I don't know what to do with her. I'm sorry you had to hear that."

Atem looked fidgety for a moment.

"Yeah. Mana told me back at the temple, about your parents and how she moved in with you."

Those words stuck Mahad dumb. His eyes soon glazed over in some shame.

"I'm sorry. I should have told you guys from the beginning."

Atem shook his head.

"I'm the one who should be apologizing."

Mahad looked at the tricolored duelist questioningly.

"Does anyone else…?"

Atem shook his head.

"No, I didn't tell them. This is your thing to tell."

Mahad sighed, some relief in it.

"Thanks for that."

Atem gave the brunette his own questioning look.

"Why didn't you say anything? This is the second time you've left out key information. What next? Do you have a cousin that is evil incarnate?"

Mahad sighed as he felt himself move toward his bed and sit down.

"No, I think that's my uncle; granted I'm probably mistaken considering what we've just gone through."

Atem was startled by the expression on Mahad's face. It was tired, more drawn out than usual. Suddenly he got the impression that there was more going on with Mahad than he had even realized. Something behind those words.

Atem realized that this was a circumstance that he had never had to deal with. Usually, he was the one who needed to confide in another for advice. Whether it had been Yugi(who despite being his younger twin seemed a lot more wiser), his grandfather, or Mahad himself; he was not the one in the position of giving out comfort.

What had happened with Mana that night in the ruins not too long ago was somewhat of a lfuke. Though he had to admit, he enjoyed her trusting him, being close to him, giving him that peck on the cheek; to which later he wondered what would follow if he just turned his head a little more to meet those lips...

He was very lucky that Mahad couldn't read minds at that moment, for all his protectiveness he would kill the person who lay one finger on his baby sister.

Instead, he tentatively spoke to the Mahad.

"Mahad, is there…anything else…you'd like to tell me?"

Mahad looked at his friend with a sigh.

"I appreciate the sentiment Atem, but this thing I'm going through right now is something I have to solve on my own."

Atem wasn't willing to let that go, but with the look on Mahad's face, he was willing to go against his regular instincts. He turned to leave the room and go back to his own that he shared with his brother and his grandfather.

"Alright. See you in the morning."

* * *

_It was dark, but that didn't bother him as he stretched himself slightly, careful not to wake the sleeping form next to him._

_In the privacy of his room, he didn't have to worry about keeping up the pretenses that he would in the throne room or elsewhere in the palace. His eyes wandered around at the many pictures depicted on his walls; Osiris and Isis, Horus fighting Seth, and others that he knew about but didn't name._

_He took a deep breath of the night's air. No, it was early morning though Ra's light had not risen yet._

_His eyes once more traveled to the female beside him, a contented smile on his face. She had been anxious last night and did not wish to leave him. How greedy she was when it came to him._

_Yet by comparison, he knew he was much greedier. He wanted her beside him as much as possible, leaving her prompted a constant worry in his mind._

_His fingers walked their way up her neck and into her hair, causing her to shift slightly. Then those fingers twisted her hair slowly as he found himself drawing closer to her._

_He enjoyed her like this just as much as she was awake. His other hand was running down her arm, making her snuggle even more to him. Even though she was sleeping, she instinctively sought his warmth and his touch._

_He felt his smile grow even more amused until he felt his own body reacting to her actions. He felt himself lean closer to her as if to kiss her awake. To have them do what any true lovers would do in bed, alone with each other. He felt his hardened organ prodding him on._

_But he wouldn't, he knew this. He only plopped his kiss on her forehead as he draw her closer into his arms. It was comfortable and warm, though not exactly what his hormones were waiting for._

_One might wonder why he and she hadn't made love, being together as long as they had. There was two main reasons for this._

_One, first and foremost, was her master. The person that both she and he looked up to like a brother. He did not approve of their relationship, he made that clear when he first found out. Aside from echoing the traditional norm of society's rules for them, the pharaoh could also detect the fear beneath his reasoning._

_He was afraid what would happen if this turned out badly for them. He loved them both equally, he didn't want to choose between them._

_And Pharaoh or not, he got the feeling his friend would not hesitate to discipline him in the most severe manner if those two were together __**like that**__._

_Second, which was part of Mahad's reason for disapproving, is that he would not slander her. A woman should only give herself to her husband and if he were to take her, she would be labeled no more than a common whore. She would stay in the palace because she was a magician, but no one would willingly associate with her again._

_That wasn't a problem though. He'd wait until their wedding night, or at least until they were formally engaged. That would solve the two problems if Mahad relented._

_The second problem was the thing weighing on his mind earlier. The only way he and Mana would be able to marry is if they got the Six Priests' approval along with the Vizier's._

_Well, the only one he really had to worry about was his uncle's approval. He couldn't think of anything to change that man's mind. Speaking of which, he seemed rather distracted lately. Was something wrong with the Millennium Eye?_

_Then his mind shifted thoughts as the vision of a blue eyed stubborn priest flashed. Of course there was always the chance that he wouldn't approve of the match, but he knew very well the high priest would never openly criticize his king._

_Plus, there was also the fact that that specific high priest probably had that pale haired girl in his bed tonight just as his friend, his love, was in his. He reminded himself not to make a joke about it coming up, he needed that guy's good mood for this unfortunately. But hypocrisy was a very powerful motivator._

_And he also reminded himself to ask his lover to get the full details about what happened between the pale maiden and his priest. He was aware they had met before she came to court, he just wasn't aware how._

_But movement aroused him from his thoughts as his love shifted into his neck, her voice breaking the silence regulated only by their breathing._

"_You know, you should be sleeping."_

"_How long have you been awaken?"_

_Her head shifted under his chin. A small smile seen on her face as her emerald eyes opened._

"_Since you began playing with my hair."_

_He felt somewhat amazed by how well she knew him._

"_How is it that you know exactly what I'm doing?"_

_She got up to look him straight in the eye._

"_Because I've been your friend longer than the two of us can really remember."_

_That prompted a smirk on his face._

"_True."_

_With this, he began to kiss her. She responded slowly and softly then morphing into more passionate and longer._

_However before the two could go further on, they were interrupted by a knock at the door._

_KNOCK! KNOCK!_

_The interruption caused the two to break off, him groaning before turning to the door._

"_Come in!"_

_The doors opened to reveal the man bald as a stone with tattoos, a golden ankh hanging down his neck. His pupil less blue eyes darted from the two for a moment, before remembering the fact that there was something more important at hand. He kneeled to the king on his bed._

"_My pharaoh, my apologies for disturbing you…."_

_To which, he groaned as his lover sat up._

"_There better be somebody dying Shada. It is too early."_

_His priest got to the point._

"_It's the Thief King!"_

_That got his attention as he sat up quickly, upsetting his lover._

"_What?!"_

RING! RING!

Atem groaned as his eyes opened slowly to find the alarm going off. He curled up into his covers more, he didn't want to get up. More particularly, he wanted to finish that dream he just had. For some reason that even while the details were slipping away from him, he had a distinct impression that dream was familiar to him.

However, his grandfather's voice broke though the blanket barriers.

"Come on Atem, it's time you got up."

He felt his voice go childish at the thought.

"Go bother Yugi."

His grandfather sighed rather good naturedly.

"Your brother has already gotten dressed and went down with Ryou for breakfast."

Atem groaned before sitting up to see his grandfather going through their suitcase.

"Alright. Alright, I'm up."

He slowly got up out of bed near to their suitcases. He started to go through his when Mana's words from the previous night came back to him.

It did seem rather cowardly of them to go running off when things got difficult. And he understood what she was saying. For some reason this felt personal, that he had to see this through.

But then common sense kicked in with a rather big mental slap. Aside from his common sense instinct, how the hell were you supposed to kill some mummy risen from the grave? You couldn't necessarily turn to the conventional sources of information because those were completely fictional.

Just then however, he got a rather bad feelin as he organized his shirts. He immediately sat up quickly, startling his grandfather.

"What's the matter?"

His question came right out.

"When did Yugi go out exactly?"

With that question still hanging in the air, the door was pounded on several times. Then a couple of seconds later, the door was thrown aside to find a very scared Yugi and an even more pissed off Bakura.

Atem's eyes widened in concern for his twin.

"Yugi, what's wrong?"

His little brother was stuttering as he obviously began talking about something that had spooked him.

"Me and Ryou were wandering around the market…we thought it would be a good idea to get out….I had no idea that…We were…"

Bakura decided to beat him to the point as he answered bluntly. He held up a rather aged scrap of papyrus.

"That mummy from the ruins. He's here in the city. And he's got Ryou."

* * *

**V.E.: Ah, cliffhangers. Why do I use you so much? Ah well, that complete this cycle. Now I can start on Princess of Egypt.**

**Poll on page.**

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	18. Ring Lost

**V.E.: Thank you Memorial Day Weekend! School's pretty much finishing up for me, so this coming week is review then exams. As my last summer before college, I hope to get some serious writing done before. And I know all of you are annoyed with cliffhanger I left the last chapter.**

**I have been annoyed with an unfortunate Economics project, otherwise I would have done this earlier.**

**Some people were glad that I was showing some more of Atem's character last chapter. I hope to do more of that in the coming chapters.**

* * *

_In the middle of this city, is a great building that houses relics of Ancient Kemet._

_Come here Thief King, if you wish to claim your younger brother._

_And bring the Ring. Else he dies._

Bakura's irritation was clearly shown as he glared at Mahad while he was reading the piece of parchment.

"Well?"

Mahad 'hmmed', trying to show how much the current situation startled him.

"And I thought Kaiba had a flair for the dramatics."

Kaiba's eyes flared in a way that made it know how he felt about that comment.

"I cannot believe you're comparing me to that..thing!"

Mahad shrugged as he glanced back at the impromptu group that had formed in his and Mana's room. Upon hearing the news, Yugi had unfortunately been put at the center of the attention. Atem was by his twin's side, trying to reassure him that it was okay. Rebecca also wanted to cheer Yugi up. Mana was for once staying close to Mahad as Seto stood alone.

Both of the older gentleman had excused themselves from the gathering. Mahad got the feeling that it was because they really didn't have much use when it came to this stuff. Counsel and wisdom yes, but the days they could fight anything was some time ago.

But Bakura….it could be easily said he was taking this the worst. Though he often teased his brother and often messed with him, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that he treasured his twin immensely. It was his duty to be the tough one, to make sure Ryou never had to face the dark gritty stuff he dealt with.

And then there was the fact that this message was for him. The fact that he was responsible for getting his baby brother sucked into whatever damned mummy craziness that was going on was more than Bakura could really handle at this moment.

Rebecca nodded, her eyes fixed back on Mahad.

"Let's go over the message again. See if there is anything we have missed."

Mahad glanced back to the aged piece of parchment. Once more he scanned the two languages it was written with, the first in Ancient Egyptian and the next Japanese.

"Well, Kemet was what the ancient called Egypt, literally 'black sands.' Relics must refer to artifacts. The only place he could be talking about is the museum in my view."

Bakura's eyes flashed dangerously at Mahad.

"I figured that out on my own Killjoy!"

Mahad just sighed. He knew it was mostly the anger talking, otherwise the white haired teen's voice would have a tone of teasing about it.

Atem stepped between the two.

"Bakura, settle down. Acting like this won't get Ryou back."

Bakura's eyes faltered with the words, his head down. Then his hand found the Ring close over the eye symbol. His head looked up, his eyes determined.

He turned immediately to go before being stopped Mana.

"Are you insane? You can't just go there!"

For the first time, Mana experienced first-hand why most people did not wish to cross the elder twin.

"Try me. Out of the way Mana!"

Atem and Mahad both glared at the teen, hauling him back into the room. Bakura struggled as much as he could.

"LET ME GO!"

Mahad shot the teen thief a stern look.

"Get a hold of yourself. That's no reason to snap at my sister."

Bakura shot the archaeologist a sarcastic look.

"And that's what gets you?"

Rebecca spoke up then.

"Bakura, we all care about Ryou."

Mana nodded in agreement.

"That's why we're not going to let you risk your life for something we know so little about. If anything happened to you, Ryou would be devastated."

That seemed to get through to Bakura as he seemed to stop struggling. He spoke once more to the group.

"That message…what else?"

Rebecca glanced at the parchment, which Mahad had handed to her when he and Atem went after Bakura.

"This bit…it says Thief King. What's that about?"

Atem pointed his thumb toward Bakura.

"Well, it's obviously referring to Bakura since Ryou is his brother."

Kaiba's expression was the same as ever as he said his input.

"True, but how would whatever this thing is know that Bakura is a thief?"

Bakura cracked the first smirk at Kaiba.

"So you do acknowledge my skills?"

Seto Kaiba simply huffed and said nothing more.

Mana picked up the conversation with a thoughtful expression.

"Actually, that's a pretty good question. But then again…"

Yugi looked up and picked up on Mana's wandering thoughts.

"What is it Mana?"

Mana grimaced before continuing.

"Well…the first time I saw that mummy, he acted like he knew me. And then when Mahad, Atem, and Bakura showed up; he said something like 'I hoped it would be awhile before I saw you three again. Especially you Pharaoh'. I don't think that's you, but you might look like someone he knew maybe."

Mahad looked at his sister, his face searching to see whether Mana was being straight with him. Too many times he had been duped by her, it came about as a force of habit.

"You're sure?"

Mana nodded, her eyes.

"Positive."

Seto had to interrupt, his voice layered with sarcasm.

"Hold on, please tell me you idiots aren't thinking that guy knew you in some other life or something."

The very idea seemed to reach Mana's mind as her mind went overdrive, scenes from her dreams darted back and forth.

Mahad merely sighed at the CEO, completely missing his sister's musings.

"I never said anything like that. At the moment, I'm open to basically ever possibility."

Rebecca's glasses were hiked back up as she scanned the letter once more.

"By Ring, he must mean the Millennium Ring."

Atem nodded, his eyes remembering that night at the ruins.

"It's exactly as that person at the ruins said, they will come after the Millennium Items."

Rebecca looked at Atem and asked what was on her mind.

"But why? I understand the Millennium Items are special, though I don't know their full powers."

This caused Seto Kaiba to scoff and Mana to look at Atem and Bakura questioningly. The later was the one who spoke what was on her mind.

"Powers?"

Atem, Bakura, and Yugi shared a look with each other. Yugi nodded toward Atem who began the explanation.

"All these item supposedly have certain powers. I can't really tell you what the Puzzle can do, I've never really seen it for myself."

Bakura held up his Ring at that, continuing where the spiky haired duelist left off.

"The Ring on the other hand, seems to be able to point out other Millennium Items. It acted up the first time I met the Mutos for the Puzzle and when I first came near Pegasus. And there was once it summoned a Man Eater Bug, but I was slightly hung over(he ignored the reproving look of Mahad) so I thought it was my imagination and tequila."

Mana's eyes lit up in understanding.

"Like for the Eye?"

Bakura nodded, not sure why Mana was acting this way.

"Yes, but why are you looking like that?"

Mana's voice came out rushed.

"Back underground, that mummy ripped out the eye form Pegasus's socket."

This fact caused Rebecca to and Yugi to have twisted expression. Rebecca shook her head with shudder.

"Gee, thanks for that mental image."

Mana continued, not upset by the comment.

"If that Ring can point us to Millennium Items, then maybe while…."

Bakura smirked.

"You're forming up a plan, aren't you?"

"Maybe, but I don't get something. If the mummy was after the Millennium Items, why didn't he take Yugi along with Ryou. He would want the Puzzle too. Also, why is this message in Japanese as well as Ancient Egyptian?"

Yugi piped up.

"I don't know about the first. But he did try to have some Wandering Mummies grab the both of us."

Then the younger twin's face went pensive as he went on.

"But the moment one tried to touch me, it just shrieked in horror. Then it just crumbled into dust."

That prompted the entire group to look at Yugi strangely. Mana felt her mind race once more, something wasn't adding up. First the hieroglyphs, now collapsing mummies?

But she just sighed, she could think about the younger spiky haired twin later.

Bakura looked at Mana with a skeptical look.

"So you're sure you have a plan?"

"Sort of. First off, we should…"

* * *

Though he hadn't been necessarily one for torture while he was alive, Aknadin could appreciate the pleasure of having someone at his mercy. On top of the museum, he could easily push the boy off the roof and get away quickly before anyone would really notice. Plus, his underlings were in the nearby area just in case although he was starting to wonder how much use they would really be.

The pale haired boy, the one Rex and Weevil called Ryou, was gagged but his eyes made Aknadin sure he would have been screaming if not. At least those two were good for information.

It was strange how much this boy resembled the Thief King. Aknadin had been in awe that his accursed nephew and others he had known from his life had been reincarnated. But then again, he couldn't be too surprised. That goddess certainly fulfilled her promise.

But what he hadn't been aware of was that those people could have siblings in another life. The Thief King and this boy, his nephew and his shorter twin. Even his son had a younger brother in this life.

Ah well, it didn't matter in the end. All that mattered was the end result.

"You bastard bag of bones."

Aknadin turned to find Bakura, looking pissed off, right on time. The Ring glittered, swaying in reaction to his eye.

"**So you show up Thief King."**

Bakura didn't look impressed.

"What's with the Thief King? And how come I understand you this time?"

This prompted a chuckle from Aknadin. It amused him that no one remembered him, except when it came to Seto(that just saddened him).

"**Well, wouldn't you like to know. But that's not important now."**

He took Ryou's neck in his one hand, holding even more to the edge. His other hand removed the mask he had been wearing to fully present himself to Bakura.

The teen was not impressed, he seemed to be even more angry.

"You should have kept the mask on. 3000 years does nothing for your skin."

The mummy priest only grimaced as his free hand pointed to the Millennium Ring.

"**Just had it over. And no funny stuff or else."**

The pale skinned and haired duelist didn't like this, but he did as asked. Carefully, he removed the Ring from his neck, ignoring the uneasy feeling as he took it off. His body was telling him not to let it go.

Still he held it in his hand and tossed it at the black clothed mummy's robes.

Quickly, Aknadin dove to get it as Ryou's neck was released and he ran over to his brother. Bakura hugged his brother tightly as soon as he could, whispering in his ear.

"Are you okay?"

Ryou simply nodded, glad to be back with the person who produced the most irritation and admiration from him.

Aknadin observed the Ring like a precious object.

"**Amazing. What the Dark Master can choose as an instrument."**

He turned his attention from the golden object and back to the pale twins.

"**Strange, you certainly are weaker in this time. Back in Ancient Kemet, you would have let the boy die for your goal."**

Bakura responded to that with a rather vicious glare.

"Listen you sanctimonious bastard, I don't care what I might have been in some past life or whatever. There is one thing you don't do with me and that's mess with my little brother. When I find a way to kill you, I will make sure it is a long, agonizing end."

That prompted a chuckle from the ancient nightmare.

"**You certainly are weaker. You don't even have the Ring anymore. Still, I might as well break you spirit."**

Before Bakura could even react, Aknadin opened his hand. Ryou stiffed as his form was moved over back near the edge. The sight of his brother back near the roof caused Bakura to yell.

"RYOU!"

"**Did you really think your disobedience to Zorc would go unpunished? Besides, this is just an example. Tell the Pharaoh that I will do the same to his double."**

With a flick of his wrist, Ryou was pushed off the roof. He was frozen as he felt the 'life flash before your eyes' was partially true; he could only see the scenes between his brother and his deceased sister Amane. He closed his eyes, ready to accept whatever was coming.

_I'm sorry Sis._

But suddenly, he felt squishiness and the distinct impression he wasn't splattered on the sidewalk. He opened his eyes to find himself comfortable landed on Marshmellon, the quirky smile aimed at him.

Aknadin seemed in shock of what he was seeing.

"**What in the Underworld…?!"**

BANG! BANG!

Aknadin was aware of the flying projectiles into his skin. He peered to find across the street, he was being aimed at.

The shots kept coming. Though they didn't really wound Aknadin, they were incredibly annoying. Plus, he had already gotten what he came for.

"**This isn't over Thief King Bakura."**

With the coming of the wind and the sands, Aknadin vanished into the air and glow of the setting sun.

* * *

Bakura was hugging his brother tightly. He had practically rushed down the stairs, to get to his brother. Everyone had managed to catch up to them at the foot of the museum.

"I'm sorry."

Ryou's voice scolded his brother.

"You couldn't have known, Thief King."

Bakura took a step back and gave his brother a look.

"Thief King?"

Ryou shrugged.

"It suits you."

Rebecca nodded in agreement.

"It does in a way."

Bakura shot her a rare grateful smile.

"Good shooting by the way."

Rebecca preened in pride as Atem and Yugi sighed. Then the elder top duelist began to speak.

"Anyway, did any of you get a look at who was off to the side."

Seto nodded along with Mahad, the BECD duelist voicing the confirmation.

"Weevil Underwood and Rex Raptor. The last time you saw them was on the boat right?"

Mana spoke up then.

"I saw those tumble out of a camel's bags during the race. Two Japanese duelists that visited an Egyptian ruin only to reappear here. You know somehow, I get the feeling that isn't a coincidence."

Bakura nodded.

"I'm inclined to agree with you. But now what?"

Mahad glanced back at Atem's Puzzle.

"Well, we know he'll come back for the Puzzle, but what about the other Millennium Items?"

Bakura sighed.

"At the moment, I'm glad that you guys were able to summon that topping monster to catch Ryou. Good idea to have the Puzzle summon him, Mana"

Mana's eyes roved around before going wide. She tugged her brother's sleeve while pointing, something she hadn't done since she was a child.

"Umm…guys…"

That got everyone's attention as they realized what was going on.

They were currently surrounded by a circle of dark cloaked figure, the eye symbol insignia recognizable. At the head of the group, Odion Ishtar stepped forward toward the group.

"Keepers of the Millennium Items, we need you to come with us."

He held up black head sacks.

"We can do this easy way or the hard way."

* * *

**V.E.: This feels rushed, but I'm glad that it's over with. Now I can do Princess of Egypt.**

**Poll on page.**

**Review.**


	19. The Tombkeepers

**V.E.: Alright this is the last chapter I started before my exams. I know you are all very annoyed that I have not updated recently. Usually after a chapter is done, I'll update another story in a day or two. Of course, that mentality comes from the fear that if I stop writing for too long I will just lose my muse forever. Weird I know, but not unfounded. Look what happened to my stories for Tales of Symphonia and Percy Jackson!**

**I'm hoping to get one of my stories done before I head off to college. Considering length and story plot, I'd have to say that it's this one.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Yugioh, I would have fought like a mad banshee for 4kids for it. The Dub had some okay stuff, but for the most part it took out the things that made it great for teenagers. Though I still watch the dub.**

**Ah well, procrastination never solved anything.**

* * *

Mana could hardly tell what had been going on until the black sack was removed from her head.

She looked around to find that she couldn't quite know where they were. It seemed almost like a movie scene of some underground hideaway. The weathered sandy walls, the torchlights gleaming in the dark, a big throne toward the front of the throne.

Then she noticed that to her side the others were getting their sacks off as well by the same dark cloaks that had surrounded them.

First came Atem, then Yugi, Ryou, Bakura, Mahad, Rebecca, and finally Seto was removed off the black head accessory. They seemed to be going through the same things Mana was.

Bakura grimaced and immediately rubbed the bump on his head once their hand restraints were cut. He shot a look at the tall giant covered in the dark cloak who had moved toward the group.

"Was that really necessary?!"

The man didn't seem at all disturbed by the teen's attitude(he'd dealt with a lot worse).

"You are the one who chose to fight back."

Seto remarked his opinion in his normal sarcastic tone.

"I can't believe I'm defending that thief, but you'd have to be a real idiot to go with strange people who _request _your presence."

Mahad was rubbing his hands rather than his head as Yugi and Rebecca were doing the same.

"I was thinking whether it was necessary to tie our hands and keep us in the dark."

The man turned his attention to the Egyptologist.

"Our hideouts are all over, we do our best to keep them secret from those who would seek us out."

Atem was rightly confused and said so.

"Hideouts? Who are you people?"

"Keepers of ancient secrets, I suppose you could say."

The group turned to find the blonde teen at the head of these thugs from the ruins. The rod with the Millennium symbol was still with him gleaming ever so. HE walked across the room and sat on the chair, throwing off the dark cloak to reveal his bleach blonde hair, slightly tan skin, and lavender eyes. An expression of exasperation on his face.

"Although, did you have to give the Ring to that monster?"

Bakura's eyes immediately narrowed in dislike at the Egyptian.

"That demon had my little brother and excuse me, but I thought you said you people were going to handle that monster back at the ruins!"

Ryou stepped between his brother.

"Bakura, enough! Let's just hear them out."

Atem nodded grimly.

"After what we've gone through, I'm willing to go on a little faith. But you haven't answered my question, who are you people?"

This got the teen to nod as the older man stood beside him on the right.

"There are many names for us, but most of them translate the same, just different tongues. We are the Tomb Keepers. For over three thousand years, we have stood guard over the ruins of the Temple of Anubis, the Tomb of the Nameless Pharaoh, and the resting place of the Millennium Stone."

He had just the magic words for Mahad, as evidenced by the excitement in his voice.

"The Nameless Pharaoh?!"

Mana shot the blonde teen a disgruntled look.

"Great, now you've done it."

Mahad shot his sister a nasty look.

"Mana!"

Mana shot her brother an equally reproving look before glancing back to the teen on the throne.

"We don't have time to get sidetrack for your paper! I'd start with your names and how any of those things really matter!"

This got the teen to smirk a little as he did as she asked, gesturing to the man at his side when it came time to.

"Very well, I am Marik Ishtar, head of the Tombkeepers. This my brother Odion."

This statement surprised the groups as their eyes widened slightly, the two looked nothing alike. Only Seto seemed unsurprised as he answered, mostly likely he just had a really good poker face.

"And I repeat Mana, what does that stuff have to do with this apparent 'risen mummy'?"

Marik Ishtar seemed mildly annoyed by Kaiba's tone but seemed to ignore it.

"That 'apparent risen mummy' was once a Millennium Item wielder. The first wielder of the Millennium Eye and until Pegasus was the only person to, High Priest Aknadin."

For some reason, the name startled Mana. It seemed as if she had heard the name before.

Mahad on the other hand, didn't seem as convinced.

"How'd did you know about his name? It was chiseled off his coffin. And what does the Millennium Items have to do with any off this?"

A calm feminine voice interrupted Mahad.

"More than you know."

Once more, everyone was startled to find another guest. This time Ishizu Ishtar came up tot eh left of Marik's side. Mairk nodded to his sister.

"My sister, Ishizu Ishtar. I take charge of the Millennium Rod and she takes care fo the Millennium Necklace."

Mana's eyes widened in surprise.

"Mahad, it's your girlfriend from the boat!"

Tha got the entire group surprised as they exclaimed in unison, unaware to Mahad and Ishizu's blushes.

"Girlfriend?!"

Mahad replied to his sister in rather dark voice accompanied by a reddened face.

"She's not my girlfriend!"

Marik looked at his sister with a surprisingly calm expression, noticeably clenching the Rod as if to unsheathe it.

"Ishizu…care to explain this?"

Ishizu's face was almost as red as Mahad's, but she said nothing.

Mana didn't seem to notice this exchange as she went on.

"Well excuse, but that postion I saw you two on the boat made it seem like you were about to lose your virginity!"

That got a rather nasty smirk from Kaiba, a very alerted and angered Ishtar brothers, and an even more mortified Ishizu.

Bakura gave off a rather dark laugh rather matching Mahad's scarlet expression.

"You're still a virgin Kurozaki?!"

Mahad shot a virile glare at Bakura before going back to his sister.

"SHUT UP YOU KLEPTOMANIAC! You have no right to lecture me on relationships! She was trying to gut me with her knife! I managed to get off her, one thing led to another, and you happened to walk into the room right after I landed on top of her!"

CLINK!

Mahad would have probably gone on had he not been distracted by the dagger from the Millennium Rod that was now being held to his throat.

Marik spoke in a rather calm tone.

"I do not claim to understand what has happened on the boat between you and my sister, but what I am hearing does not sound very good for you."

Mahad shot a rather irate look at his threatener.

"Don't I get some consideration that I just trying to defend myself?"

Ishizu took charge then, her redness calming down.

"Marik, enough! It's as he says, nothing happened."

Marik seemed to hesitate for some moments before reluctantly sheathing the knife back into its Rod position. That didn't stop him giving Mahad a rather dark look as he sat back on the throne.

Ishizu cleared her throat before speaking again.

"My apologies, my brother tends to act first before thinking. Let me start this conversation over, how much do you people know of the Millennium Items?"

Yugi was the one to answer her.

"Well, only that there are seven in all and each possess specific powers. According to legends, each has the ability to call forth shadow creatures or issue as Shadow Game. But this power was locked away because of a sacrifice of an Egyptian pharaoh. At least, that's what Grandpa and Professor Hawkins have said."

Odion was the one who responded.

"I suppose that's pretty good for a basic understanding. Continue, Ishizu."

Ishizu nodded and went on.

"It is off the Egyptian Pharaoh, I speak of. Three millennia ago, he ascended the throne with the power of the Millennium Items. However a rebellion, first headed by the Thief King then Aknadin, brought his reign to rather short end."

Bakura was about to interrupt for Ishizu shot him a silencing glare.

"Please don't interrupt until I'm finished. This was all to resurrect the Dark Lord Zorc, a demonic presence that resides in the Shadow Realm. It is for this same reason that Aknadin gathers the Millennium Items in this time, to resurrect him in the present time.

"In the case of this possibility, the pharaoh's successor formed the Tomb Keepers. Our job is to watch over all the things Marik has told you. In addition, we are to be on the lookout for Millennium Items."

Marik made a gesture to his Rod.

"I barely managed to hang onto this thing in the ruins. We also found Pegasus."

Mana looked concerned at that statement.

"Is he okay?"

Odion nodded.

"He was in need of medical attention, but he is stable now. The Priest of Darkness will not bother him now that he no longer has the eye."

Marik shot an irate look at his sister.

"And you couldn't have told me he had the Eye?"

Ishizu didn't seem unsettled with her brother's irritation.

"I was there for another reason, not to reclaim an item already bonded to him. Unless you think I should have ripped it out of his socket at the time."

"It would have saved us a lot of trouble. Thanks to that, we had an expedition to the ruins and now a raised mummy/demon on the lose!"

Mahad seemed to be annoyed a little bit with Marik.

"And stopping this mummy justifies the killing of innocent lives?"

Marik pretended to think, turning to his siblings before they answered in unison.

"To stop this monster, let me think; YES!"

That caught Mahad off guard but Mana quickly answered.

"Um, back at the ruins…the mummy…Aknadin…he acted like he knew, he knew my name at least."

This prompted an interest expression from Ishizu.

"Go on."

"Then when Mahad, Atem, and Bakura showed up, he said that he hoped it would awhle before he saw them again 'Especially you pharaoh.'."

This prompted a rather stunned silence from the Tombkeepers as Mana added something else.

"And when Aknadin kidnapped Ryou, he called Bakura Thief King."

Bakura gave a rather straight look at that.

"Sorry for trying to tell you that. Not."

The three Ishtars looked st each other, a furious mental debate seemed to begoing on. Finally, Ishizu voiced the words.

"The Tablet of the Pharaoh's Memories?"

Marik nodded.

"I'd have not thought it possible, but if the Oathbraker recognized them…"

Then Odion spoke.

"Then the Goddess' Promise is true."

Rebecca looked at the Ishtars questioningly, a sentiment shared by the rest of the room.

"Umm, care to fill the people in who don't know what you guys are talking about?"

Marik looked up.

"It is better to show than to explain perhaps. I'll start the arrangements for you guys to see the tablet in the morning."

Ishizu continued the thought.

"I think the Yugi, Atem, and Seto in particular would find the artifact rather illuminating."

Kaiba looked rather skeptical.

"How did you know our names and who we are anyway?"

Odion spoke up then.

"We did a rather extensive background check on you all signed onto the expedition."

Marik turned to his sister then.

"Speaking of arrangements, you were late Ishizu."

Ishizu nodded in apology.

"Forgive me, but I ran into a familiar face."

Odion looked interested.

"Who?"

"Shadi."

This prompted a twisted expression on Marik's face.

"Manipulative straight faced…"

His older sister once more sent him a reproving look.

"Marik, what happened was not his fault! You know this."

That didn't improve Marik's attitude toward the man.

Mana spoke up with an enlightened expression.

"This guy Shadi, turban, gold kind of ankh necklace, no real expression on his face. Would that be who you're talking about?"

That surprised the Ishtars as well as the people of her own group. Marik spoke.

"You know him?"

Mana pointed towards Atem before continuing.

"I ran into him before I ran into Atem the day after we got into Egypt. Right after I was chased by some people in dark cloaks, that wouldn't have happened to be some of the Tombkeepers, would they?"

Marik got a rather nasty expression on his face.

"As I told those idiots, follow not chase! Remind me to talk to them about leaving about important info."

Mahad shot his sister a reproving look.

"You were chased and you didn't tell me?!"

"I kind of had other things on my mind when we met up again. Like how to painfully hurt Atem."

Atem joined the conversation with a wary expression.

"I thought we agreed to let that go."

Mana nodded in confirmation.

"I did. Just saying."

Marik turned back to his sister.

"Alright, so what did the expressionless bastard say to you?"

Ishizu only momentarily frowned for Marik's language before holding up a familiar notebook.

"Just that this would come in handy."

"My sketchbook!"

Before anyone could really react to it, Mana came forward and snatched the book and held it to her chest.

"Oh, I'll never let you out of my sight again. I haven't gotten to use you for my weirdest dreams that I've had recently."

Mahad would have anime sweat dropped if he could.

"Um, Mana….you're talking to that like it's a person."

Mana shot an even look to her brother.

"And you make out with your pillow in your sleep. Do you have any idea how weird that is when we're sleeping in the same room?"

Once more Mahad, was acutely aware of his reddening face and the rather disguised chuckles of Bakura and Seto.

Ishizu seemed to ignore this comment as she questioned Mana.

"This is yours? Where did you get the ideas for these?"

Mana thought before answering.

"I often draw what I see from my dreams. They've become rather weird recently, so a friend suggested that I write them down. I stink as a writer so I just drew them."

"Did you draw all of your dreams?"

Mana suddenly remembered her recent dreams, with some rather warm details. She felt her face flush lightly.

"Well…um…not everything…um…."

Ishizu got the underlying message immediately.

"Oh, I see."

Marik looked at his sister questioningly.

"Um, I don't."

"It's a girl thing Marik. Miss Mana, will you accompany me? I'd like to discuss them in detail."

Mana nodded as she began to walk with Ishizu away.

"Of course."

Odion turned to the rest of the group, particularly Atem, Yugi, and Rebecca.

"We insist you stay underground with us for tonight, there's safety in numbers. We had your things brought over form the hotel. Including your grandfathers."

Atem looked surprised.

"And they just went with you like that?!"

Odion answered the question.

"Well, they were very skeptical of us, but they were really interested in our offering that they use our ancient records for the night."

That got Rebecca and Atem to sigh, the first spoke and turned to the younger Muto of twin.

"Why am I not surprised? Hey Yugi, I guess we should check on them."

Yugi nodded before turning to his twin.

"You coming?"

Atem shook his head.

"You go ahead."

Yugi just sighed.

"Don't do anything drastic."

Atem smiled.

"You always know what I'm thinking. I won't."

Yugi didn't seem to believe that, but he followed Rebecca out of the room.

Bakura looked at the older twin questioningly.

"What are you up to?"

"I was thinking of playing a game called 'Torture Weevil and Rex til they squeal.' Care to join me? Of course, we'll have to find them first."

Bakura wiped out his knife with a smile.

"Millennium Ring or not, I'm always game for a little fun. Ryou?"

Ryou waved his brother off as he headed in Yugi and Rebecca's direction.

"I think I'll stick with Yugi if you don't mind. I might do a reading later. Come back soon as you can okay?

Bakura nodded.

"Sure. Well, where do we start?"

"This isn't for fun. It's for information. Kaiba, what about you?"

Seto Kaiba scoffed off to the side.

"Why would I want to do that? This is all crazy."

Atem lifted his eyebrow at Kaiba.

"Would you rather stay here?"

That sold Kaiba's decision.

"Alright, I'll come. Even though those morons don't even deserve a second glance form me."

Mahad sighed.

"I suppose I should tag along to make sure you don't harm those poor fools too much."

Marik perked up.

"This sounds interesting. Mind if I join you?"

Atem considered it before speaking.

"Depends on how good you are at finding an annoying insect and a dino that isn't so scary."

Marik smirked and turned back to Odion.

"Odion…"

Odion turned his back to his little brother.

"I see nothing, I hear nothing. If you caught, it's your own head with Ishizu."

MAirk turned back to the group with a smile.

"There you have it! Let's go!"

* * *

**V.E.: A rather hurried chapter, but be grateful I updated alright! Next I go back to Princess of Egypt. Now that summer is around the corner, I have more liberty and time to update.**

**Well, the result is unanimous. Cardcaptor Mana, it is. Which will begin after this story is finished.**

**Which leads to another poll on page regarding it. Please check it out.**

**Thanks for the 100 reviews!**

**REVIEW PEOPLE! **


	20. Torture for Information

**V.E.: Hello people! This will probably be my last chapter I update before I go onto my college orientation so I'll be updating Princess of Egypt probably this weekend since we won't be cleaning. **

**In answer to the review, no Atem will not be doing that. I'm trying to mix both Yugioh and the Mummy, plus I have some of my own twists going on. I might use it another story though. **

**Alright, I know a majority of you hate Weevil(Rex being thrown in by association, slightly sorry dino boy) and want to see him tortured, so let's just get to the chase. As for the disclaimer, I'm just going to skip that meaningless bit of information.**

* * *

"Have you found it yet?"

Weevil groaned before turning back to his somewhat partner from the filling desk.

"You asked me that question ten seconds ago, do you really think that would have made much of a difference?!"

Rex shrugged as Weevil sighed exasperatedly, before speaking again.

"Just get to your own work, will you! You know if we go back empty handed, it will the worst for us right?"

Rex nodded before going through the book shelf.

"Right."

One might wonder why these two duelists were trashing the office of of an Egyptian museum director. The room was distinctly scholarly, dark toned walls with the paintings of Egyptian art. There many scholarly books in the shelves, the desk full of all sorts of increments. Above this all, was a huge fan going on(they were wondering why something like that would be there).

Rex commented then.

"Although, it would have been nice if that guy bothered to tell us what we should be looking for."

Weevil kept going through the files.

"He said it had to do with that puzzle Muto always carries around with. Just look for that eye symbol or something."

A malicious tone interrupted them that made them stop their search.

"As thieves go, probably some solid insight. However, you forgot the part about making sure no one is aware you're breaking in."

That got the two miniature duelists to freeze in their tracks. They slowly turned around to find the owner of that voice, Bakura, handling his knife with impatience. Right next to him, was Atem Muto, who did not look too pleased to see the duo. Mahad Shen was also there, who rather looked disbelieving at the state of the office. Marik Ishtar was out of his Tomb Keeper robes and into his purple shirt, black pants, and obvious golden jewelry.

Mahad gave one more glance to the office.

"Exactly how did you idiots think you were going to find anything with this mess?"

Marik also looked slightly annoyed with them.

"And did you idiots even stop to think whether or not this particular director's office was in fact, one of our own? We keep tabs on this museum, we knew exactly when you were breaking in."

The two didn't even bother to answer as they tried to make a run for it, but that was a futile attempt on their part. Rex was caught by Bakura as Weevil's throat was held by Atem's hands.

Bakura took the opportunity to push Rex against the wall and inch the knife up to the dino duelist's throat.

"Now we have some questions for you fools."

Weevil was pushed up against the same wall, but he made a comeback.

"And what makes you think we'll talk?"

Marik took the opportunity then to hold up the Millennium Rod, the eye gleaming. The very sight made them both gulp.

"Technically, I could easily have this Rod force you to tell us everything and send you back to your 'master' as quivering wrecks. But I get the feeling you guys will cooperate whether I have to use this or not."

Mahad sighed and turned around.

"On second thought, maybe I shouldn't see this. I don't want to have to lie to Ryou, Yugi, or Professor Muto."

Bakura just shrugged, not really concerned with the brunette's actions.

"Suit yourself. Alright you two, we knew you came to the ruins. How did you get back to this city and why were you in the immediate vicinity of where that monster was?"

Weevil wasn't afraid at the white haired boy's controlled rage.

"That 'monster' is currently who we're working for. And he's got more power than you could ever imagine."

Atem Muto's face hardened into a severe glare.

"If you mean those Shadow Creatures, we already know. Still, not really a surprise you two would go and cling yourself to the person who seems the most powerful. What did he want?"

Weevil smirked.

"Weird looking rod or not, there's no way we're saying anything."

"Wrong answer. Bakura, do you mind if I borrow your hostage for a moment?"

Bakura slightly loosened his grip on Rex, who was looking apprehensive at this unexpected turn of events.

"Be my guest."

Atem nodded in somewhat gratitude before taking both of their throats and walking to the center of the room. With very little strength on his part, he hoisted the two of them towards the ceiling, towards the giant spinning fan.

Their eyes both widened at the very real possibility of having their heads chopped off.

Marik smiled at the display.

"There's nothing like having two idiots get their just desserts, isn't there?"

Bakura shared his sentiments with a smirk.

"Quite, although I'm a little disappointed in the lack of screaming and bloodshed."

That got Mahad to glare at the two teens.

"Knock off the sadism! We're here for information, not for your own amusement!"

Atem nodded before he turned his attention back to the helpless victims.

"Quite. Now are you two going to cooperate this time?"

Weevil looked like he was about to crack, but Rex beat him to it.

"Those Items! Whatever you called them, Aknadin wants them!"

Atem's eyes were direct as he answered.

"What else did he want?"

This gave Weevil the chance to speak.

"He wanted the location of some stone tablet or something…."

Marik's eyes lit up in dark understanding.

"The Tablet of the Pharaoh's Memories?"

Rex nodded hurriedly.

"Yeah, that's it. He also wanted to know where something called the Millennium Stone is."

Marik's thought trailed off darkly.

"So that he can raise Zorc the Dark One."

Bakura shot the blonde Egyptian a look.

"Isn't that a duel monsters card?"

"Yes, but at the same time it's a bit more than that. It's the ancient demon that almost destroyed Egypt all those years ago."

Marik glared at the two who were slightly farther away from the fan at that information.

"Why does he want the Tablet of the Pharaoh's Memories?"

Weevil was slightly intimidated by the blonde's glare, but he tried not to let it show.

"Wants to destroy it, something about his nephew and his friends."

That got Atem and the modern crowd to be puzzled and said so. Marik was uncharacteristically solemn with the information.

"Nephew?! Whoever that guy's nephew was, he's long since dead!"

Rex replied in an even tone.

"Do you think we really understand a dead guy's reasoning? The guy offered us power and we took the deal!"

Mahad looked interested and spoke up.

"What did he offer you?"

Weevil's voice was almost gleeful as he responded to the Egyptologist's question.

"The Egyptian God Cards! He said that the Millennium Ring could locate the cards and as soon as he was done collecting everything necessary for raising the Dark One. He didn't care what happened to them as long as he stayed out of you guys' hands."

Atem looked interested at this turn of events.

"The Egyptian God Cards? So they do exist. But why keep them out of our hands? Why is this guy so focused on us? And why did he call Bakura Thief King?"

Bakura preened slightly at the title.

"Not that it doesn't suit me. I think I'll use that the next time I break into my school, graffiti it all over the walls."

Mahad shot the white haired thief an irate look.

"You do that and I'll call your school and tell them all about your little 'escapades' when I was working in the Kame Game Shop."

The two of them responded in unison, their tones identical.

"How should we know?"

Atem sighed in exasperation before he tried again.

"Alright aside from the Items, do you know what else he needs to raise this 'Dark One'?"

Rex thought for a moment before having an 'Ah ha!' look on his face.

"He said something about an 'Eighth Key.' No idea what that is though, he called up those Harpy Ladies to have it search for it."

Weevil shot his partner an irate look, not so much remembering being right below a deadly fan.

"You only know that because you were spying the monsters' tits. And I thought you were idiot when you lost your room on the boat to Duelist Kingdom to Mai Valentine. Honestly, everyone knows she's as vicious as those harpies of hers, but no you got distracted by a flirtatious blonde with big assets!"

Rex's face went red as he glared at his 'friend.'

"Shut up!"

"You're the one who's mind goes toward the perverted. I, on the other hand, can be completely focused on a task and not have to worry about getting destracted."

Rex looked at Weevil disbelieving.

"You need to get laid one of these days, insect boy."

"You're virgin too Rex!"

Mahad took the opportunity to cover his hands with his ears.

"Okay, I really don't need to hear about any of this."

Bakura and Marik looked slightly green as they nodded in unison.

"Ditto."

Weevil glared own at Muto.

"Aknadin also wanted us to do something your little brother."

Atem's tone went harsh the conversation went to Yugi, lifting Weevil and Rex up toward the fan again.

"Leave Yugi out of this! What does he have to with any of this?!"

Weevil stuttered as he answered.

"Aknadddin called him 'a servant touched by the Goddess' light' or something. Said he would have been problem and to get rid of him as soon as possible."

Being lowered slightly from the fan, Weevil then glanced as an afterthought towards Mahad.

"Oh and his sister too."

That got Mahad angry as it took Marik and Bakura to keep him restrained. Which got the tow really reevaluating their prethought of notions of the brunette man.

"Stay away from my sister, you second rate duelists creeps!"

Atem shot his older friend a look.

"Mahad, easy!"

Mahad didn't back down at all when he replied.

"So what are we going to do?! Let these guys go back to that undead monster and screw us over?!"

With that, Atem Muto looked back to Weevil and Rex who didn't know what was going to happen next.

* * *

"THIS ISN'T FUNNY MUTO!"

"JUST WAIT UNTIL WE GET OUT OF HERE!"

Bakura looked on with a rather amused look as he examined the two tied upside down to a rather large statue of Anubis inside one of the museum's exhibits.

"Oh I don't know, I find this rather amusing. Nice skills turning off the security stuff Ishtar."

Marik nodded, examining Atem's handy work.

"Glad you approve thief. I always enjoy some due humiliation."

Seto rolled his eyes at the duo.

"You two are absolutely crazy."

Mahad shot a look at the Kaiba Corp CEO.

"And where have you been?"

"Getting on the internet to find some actually knowledge for this 'mumbo jumbo.'."

Mahad smirked at that.

"You know if I didn't know better, I'd say you're starting to believe in this 'hocus pocus magic trick'."

That hit a nerve and set off the regular tension between those.

"WHY YOU?!"

Atem shot a glare at the bickering duo.

"Save it you two! We need to get back to the Tombkeepers' hideout, with what little information we got out of these two. The security guards can deal with them in the morning."

Marik nodded vigorously.

"Oh trust me, my sister will want to know about that stuff."

Atem took that moment to study the Egyptian's expression, getting the impression he understood a lot more than what was going on than he did.

Bakura shot a look at the Ishtar as well, but his was more questioning.

"Do we have to cover ourselves with those sacks again?"

This got Marik to smirk as he held up the Millennium Rod.

"Nope. Just call me a taxi and I'll give the directions."

* * *

**V.E.: Okay finally done and I made my deadline. Oh man, summer vacation is making me lazy. Well I've got writing until August, which is when a game I want comes out. So definitely expect updates this June and July.**

**REVIEW!**

**Check out my poll as well.**


	21. Ambush On Route

**V.E.: Once more my laziness comes back to haunt me, this story should have been updated a while ago but I've been putting it off because I don't feel particularly motivated. I thought summer would be great since I could finish chapters in a day or two. Now I realize it makes me even lazier. Still, I wanted to get on this.**

**Also, I'm still contemplating taking a hiatus from this story. Nothing personal, just feel like my mind is running with lots of ideas. I'm not doing it now, I'm just keeping it as a thought in my mind.**

**This line would be usually devoted to the disclaimer, but you can probably guess that this replaces it. Please just go to the line beyond the page break.**

"Okay, on a scale of one to ten, how mad are you?"

Judging by Ishizu's expression, Mana would have to guess it was between several million and infinity, though she was doing an incredible job concealing all of her irritation since she was the one driving the jeep. And she thought she had it tough with her brother.

She glanced around the desert surroundings they were all driving through, the dust from the tires the only thing really affecting the surroundings. This was only the first of three jeeps, the first in which Mana was riding with her brother, Atem, and Marik(with Ishizu already being stated as the driver). The second held the Bakura siblings, Yugi, and Seto Kaiba sulking in the front seat(who though didn't approve of this _field trip_ in the least, was in a much better mood after getting some internet connection on Kaiba Corp). Grandpa Muto, Arthur Hawkins, and Rebecca were currently riding a third with another Tombkeeper(though in comparison they were least likely to be targeted by the risen mummy).

Needless to say, Ishizu Ishtar had not been pleased in the least when she found Marik trying to sneak with the others back into the hideout. But that anger had been controlled as Marik told his sister in a hurry what they had found out from Weevil and Rex, immediately rushing the plans to see the tablet.

They had started out in early morning before the sun, it had been relatively cool so Mana had fallen asleep, since she really didn't get much the night before. Though it had been a little awkward waking up on Atem's shoulder, she thankful managed to reign in her blush(he seemed rather embarrassed by it as well).

Especially out of the dream she had woken from.

Last night, Ishizu and her had gone thorough almost all of her sketches and it took then to realize that some of the Egyptian ones resembled people she knew. She had even found one the resembled Ishizu next to one she thought looked like her brother

The piece seemed to be connecting to her; the magician in her dreams that looked like her brother, the vizier that looked like Mr. Muto, the thief that looked like Bakura…..

The pharaoh that looked like Atem.

From the expression Ishizu had worn when she went through the pictures, Mana knew she hadn't told Mana everything. But she was starting to come to a theory….a really crazy theory, but it was starting to make somewhat sense….

Mahad sighed.

"You think you're brother's trouble? A couple of years ago, my sisters rigged a contraption that made me look a king sized chicken!"

Mana rolled her eyes in exasperation, unaware the interest the story was getting from the teen boys.

"Oh please, like you're innocent? What about that time you snuck me out of the house when you wanted to go to that late night book signing when Mom and Dad were out to their anniversary dinner? Didn't you get grounded for a month?"

"Says the girl who messed with my conditioner that made my hair turn purple for two weeks!"

"Says the brother who spent so much time in an Egyptian exhibit he forgot his sister was there and went home without her!"

"You're the one who snuck into the dinosaur exhibit!"

"AHEM!"

The two siblings found that Atem was the one who caused the sound, causing their faces to turn rather sheepish.

Marik looked a little put out of it that he wasn't going to hear.

"Oh, why'd you make them stop?"

Atem shot the blonde a look before turning his gaze on the Kurozaki siblings.

"As interesting as this all is, I'd prefer to focus on what's going on. Then when the when our lives are back to semi normal, you guys can bicker all you want."

Marik looked around the desert, scanning.

"This feels too easy. I would have thought something would have happened by now."

Ishizu made eye contact with the mirror before turning back to the road.

"You're right. You would think he would have something that would stop us from reaching the Pharaoh's Tablet."

Mahad decided to remark on the comment.

"Okay, what is so important about this tablet anyway?"

Ishizu didn't look at all willing to say anything about it.

"You'll see…"

Mahad didn't seem very happy about that.

"Miss Ishtar, if this is some wild goose chase, though it is certainly not my first…"

Mana perked up at that.

"Excuse me?"

"I'll tell you later, if it than I swear…"

Ishizu's voice echoed anger, though her eyes were still on the road.

"Mr. Shen this may be an adventure to you people, but this is my life and my family's life for the last three thousand years. Insult me again and I will kick you out of this jeep like I should have knifed you on the boat. Clear?"

That got a rather impressive silence, as the boys looked the epitome of wariness while Mana seemed look at the Ishtar woman with some reverence.

Mahad didn't seem that intimidated.

"Crystal. But just so you know, you're not the only person who has someone you care about in danger."

Before Ishizu could really respond to that, came the great rumbling beneath them and effectively stopping the jeeps.

RRRMMMMMM!

That got everyone to sit up and attention away from the conversation. Marik's eyes went wide as he tried to figure out where the sound was coming from.

"Were's that coming from?"

A shout from the jeep behind them, seemed to be Bakura by the tone of it.

"DID YOU HEAR THAT?"

Atem yelled back to his somewhat rival.

"YEAH! WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT WAS?"

Bakura looked ready to speak before the ground rumbled again.

RRRRRRRRRRMMMMMMMMM!

But that didn't just stop with the noise, as there seemed to be a giant monster popping out of the gorund looking similar to a scorpion, black with the Millennium Eye on her back.

The Mystical Beast of Serqet let out an unearthly scream as several mummies seemed to be coming out of the ground.

Marik shot a look at his sister.

"I told you this was too easy!"

Ishizu turned back to the two Millennium Item wielders.

"Marik, Atem, get out your monsters!"

She went to the bag right near her, pulling out her deck. She immediately drew a card, holding it up without even looking at it, the Necklace glowing around her throat.

"SPIRIA!"

A flash of light and a dark blue haired fairy with light green skin and white wings appeared, flapping until it stood beside it's owner.

For the first time in a very long time, Mana and Mahad seemed to be of one mind.

_Where I have seen that before?_

Atem looked at Marik in interest.

"Your sister has Spiria, that's a rather rare card."

Marik nodded, his hand going to his own deck, but he drew two while his sister drew one. His other hand was around the Rod as he called out his monster.

"Yeah, you'd be surprised the rare cards the Tombkeepers have. Come out REVIVAL JAM! FELGRAND DRAGON!"

With that crack of light, came a rather light blue gelatinous substance that latched itself to the nearest mummy. Another light coming from the clouds, a golden like slim dragon that seemed to have light glow with it gave out it's roar and started to blast some of the other scorpion beasts starting to appear.

But it seemed like there were more of those monsters to come as some Harpy Ladies were coming down to the playing field.

At that, Marik looked at Atem.

"You know, a little help would be nice."

Atem was ahead of him as he began going through his deck and nodded as he made his choice.

"This should do."

He raised the card high, his voice echoing almost king like in Mana's opinion.

"I summon thee, CURSE OF DRAGONS!"

And…..

Nothing happened.

Atem blinked a couple of times before pulling the card down, looking at it quizzically.

"That wasn't supposed to happen."

Mahad looked at his friend in worry as some of the scorpions were getting to their jeep.

"What's wrong?"

Atem shook his head in disbelief.

"I don't know! It worked when I called out Marshmellon to save Ryou!"

Mana's face seemed to perk up with an idea.

"Unless…."

Mahad was looking at his sister warily.

"Mana, you're getting that look in your eyes again….please tell me you're not thinking of whip creaming these guys?"

Mana grabbed Atem's hand.

"We need to get to Yugi! Marik, how good are you at hand to hand combat with mummies?"

Marik shrugged.

"Well considering I had to get a crash course when defending the Rod against them, I'd say I'm pretty okay."

Mahad looked at his sister with an incredulous glance.

"You cannot seriously think I am letting you go out there with a bunch of monsters that are going to kill us!"

Mana shot her brother a look.

"I have an idea! Just trust me!"

Mahad looked ready to argue at that, but Ishizu looked Mana right in the eye.

"Do you think it will work?"

"It's better that staying right here."

Ishizu nodded.

"Be careful."

Mana nodded as Marik slammed the door open and the three got out of it. Right into the crowd of mummies, but luckily for Mahad's nerves that Marik and Atem were rather apt fighters of anything(be they Tombkeepers or mummy Duel Monsters) and were capable of defending Mana. He turned his attention on Ishizu, who seemed to have a little trouble with a mummy until he got out his knife and cut off the hand.

Mana didn't see this as she went with the boys, but she did hear the rather loud bang nailing a couple of mummies close to them, while Felgrand Dragon was dealing with the big ass scorpion.

BANG!

As a matter of fact it came from the third jeep, Arthur praising his friend for the shot.

"Nice one Solomon!"

Solomon preened as he aimed his next shot.

"Oh, doing this reminds me of a little escapade in Guatemala. Man, that was one great casino!"

Rebecca got her gun and aimed near some of the lesser scorpions.

"This is more fun than that summer study in London last summer!"

That got her grandfather to shoot her a look.

"Remember Rebecca these things are here to kill us! And don't think this means you can slack off on your studies and go to a shooting range!"

Solomon seemed to be taking aim again.

"Arthur, I think this is the time to aim now, lecture our grandchildren on safety later!"

Speaking off the second jeep, Odion and Seto were the ones taking care of the front while Bakura was the only one who could fight in the back. Ryou looked slightly in the panic mode, though Yugi managed to bang up a mummy pretty good until he covered the mouth for some reason.

Immediately, the mummy collapsed into the ground.

The three looked incredibly weirded out by it, but didn't have enough time to ponder about this as Atem and Mana came up to them. Mana was the first to speak.

"Atem, you have to have Yugi touch the card while you summon it. It was like that back when you summoned Marshmellon, I didn't notice it before since it was briefly."

Atem looked at her with some skepticism.

"Are you sure this will work?"

Mana's irritation shown through then.

"Just try it!"

Atem looked at Yugi who smiled and grasped the card in his brother's hand. Atem readied himself again and called out.

"CURSE OF DRAGONS!"

This time the roar of a reaction as the yellow dragon with red in it descended from the crowds and began to join in with his other yellow dragon in getting rid of the scorpion, thus working into the Harpy Ladies.'

Marik and Atem both looked at Mana in wonder, the blonde Egyptian voicing his thoughts.

"How did you know that would work?!"

Mana shrugged, but unluckily they couldn't dwell on that train off thought much longer as the screech of a Harpy Lady was heard as it dove down towards what was left of the people left near the first jeep, grabbing Ishizu up in her talons, who was struggling as much as she could.

"Let go of me!"

Marik was turned into her direction, his eyes widening as fast as they could, with Odion not too far behind him.

"ISHIZU!"

But before Marik and Odion could rush over near her, the sudden descending of what seemed to be Swords of Lights blocked almost everyone off from getting to her.

An enormous red dragon, what most duelists recognized as Harpies Pet Dragon since they had seen Mai use it so much, flapped in descent with the risen demonic mummy himself, his white mask back on and Millennium Ring hanging from his neck.

A rumble of chuckling echoed form the dark mummy.

"**Well Isis, I'd never thought you would be the next to offer up your Millennium Item to the Dark One."**

Ishizu nailed the mummy with her most virile glare.

"You are mad, High Priest Aknadin."

"**Ah, I see your scorn and high sense of duty hasn't changed despite your new life in this time. Still, the end will be the same for you in this time."**

The Harpy Lady lifted the Ishizu up next to Aknadin, as he carefully unclasped the necklace from her neck.

Aknadin seemed to look at Ishizu in wonder.

"**You know, I thought that you would be the trickiest of the Guardians to deal with, back in the past and in this time. But it seems like your visions have failed you both times."**

"What in hell's name are you talking about?!"

That got Aknadin and Ishizu to look down at Mahad, the only one not trapped behind the Swords of Revealing Light. Aknadin seemed to let out a small sigh.

"**Oh joy, you again."**

Akandin jumped off Harpies' Pet Dragon and landed on the ground, right by Mahad startling him slightly but not for long. Akndin snapped his fingers and another Harpy Lady came down and pined Mahad to the ground with her talon.

Akandin bent down to look at the trapped archaeologist.

"**I suppose it's time I paid you back for what happened in Kul Elna, Magician."**

Mahad looked incredibly confused at that.

"What the….where's Kul Elna?"

Aknadin's tone gained some amusement.

"**Ah yes, I forgot. No memory this time. Pity, it would have been nice to see the anguish on your face. Still, I think there will be enough instinctual memory for this."**

The dark robed mummy turned to the Harpy Lady holding Ishizu.

"**Tear her to shreds and make sure he is watching."**

With that, the Harpy Lady pining Mahad tightened her grip forcing the brunette to look upward at the wicked grin on the other Harpy Lady as she began to tighten her talons on the Egyptian beauty.

Mana ran straight to the barrier as she felt utter fear, fear she hadn't felt sicne the call form the hospital. Atem tried to restrain her as she banged her fist against the wall.

"Mana, get a hold of yourself!"

"Don't tell me what to do right now, Atem! Mahad!"

Mahad didn't speak as he watched, but he was aware of the utter rage and….utter terror that was forming within him as he watched Ishizu was helpless. Confused by it, nevertheless it began to grow even stronger as he felt the grip tighten around him, almost a dim humming in his ears….

As it turned out, there was a hum as the Millennium Ring around Aknadin's neck as it began glowing and the little things around the Ring began to move to the noise.

Akandin looked down at the Item, his voice filled with surprise and wonder.

"**What's this?!"**

Those outside of the light barrier were also surprised, but Atem and Marik were also aware of the slight glow their own Items were emitting.

The Millennium Ring stopped moving as the little golden arrows stood together, as the golden glow became blinding, that almost everyone covered their eyes from it.

When the flash dissipated, Mahad slowly opened his eyes to find them go wide at what he saw before him.

The Sorcerer of Dark Magic, the most powerful magician Yugi and Atem had, stood before him, his dark robes billowing with the slight wind.

His dark navy eyes settled on the Harpy Lady then went to Mahad. For a flicker of a moment, Mahad was struck by a sense of….for lack of a better word, familiarity.

The jeweled of scepter was raised as the magic attack struck the harpy, back into the barrier of light swords and off of Mahad.

Mahad got uneasily up as the magician turned towards Aknadin, his glare that could freeze hydrogen aimed at the betrayer.

_You have gone too far._

Aknadin's voice echoed outrage

"**How dare you meddle with me! How have you appeared? You were not summoned!"**

The magician's eyes once more made eye contact with Mahad's for but a moment, but it was something that did not escape by Mana's notice, who at the same time was feeling the same feelings Mahad was currently.

_The answer is obvious, you of all of people should understand the ties that bind._

The master magician turned back to Aknadin, raising his scepter towards the Harpy Lady in the air. One more glow which was brighter than the last, and the blast made the Harpy Lady scream in pain disappear and drop Ishizu.

Before Mahad even knew what he was doing, he was running at a great pace, catching her into his arms. He panted as he spoke to her.

"Are you alright?"

Ishizu nodded as Mahad set her standing upright.

"Yes, I'm fine."

She stumbled into Mahad's arms again, suddenly aware of how warm it felt, but before she could think on it even more, the Sorcerer of Dark Magic stood in front of the two, the scepter glowed once more and dispelled the sword barrier, allowing Mana to run straight to her brother.

"Mahad, are you alright!?"

Before Mahad could affirm, the sorcerer readied his stance, his words echoing through everyone's minds.

_Run now, I will hold him off as long as I can. Seek out Shadi if you can._

His scepter glowed as Curse of Dragons, Felgrand Dragon, Guardian Dragon, and the Red Eyes Black Dragon descend from the skies and land, ready for passengers. Revival Jam and Spiria bowed to the magician as they disappeared. He turned back to make eye contact once more.

_Go._

Everyone else was ready to do so, though Mana felt inclined to linger behind, as she was reminded of her meeting with the Magician's Valkyria.

Atem, however, pulled her along with himself, pulling her toward Curse of Dragons and settling her on.

"Come one Mana!"

His voice brought her back out of her thoughts, as she nodded toward him.

As soon as everyone was on a dragon(though Kaiba looked rather annoyed that he was currently on the mutt's favorite dragon), the wings began to flap, taking their charges with them. The last sight they saw of them was Aknadin's hands glowed with a dark magic and the sorcerer stood before him unyielding, the scepter glowing bright; as they all turned forward to their destination.

**V.E. Man, this severely went off of what I outlined. Still, could be worse, could be a lot better. I was partially just trying to write it.**

**Well, at least I can go into Princess of Egypt now. REVIEW!**


	22. Tablet of Revelations

**V.E.: Okay it might surprise you to know that a soon to be college student is interested in Disney stuff, but come on! Disney is perhaps the first storyteller we know outside of the regular book stories. While not everything they have had is a hit, there are some definite good ones! I mean, has anyone seen Wreck It Ralph? Some people think we're currently going through a new Disney Renaissance. So for a while I've pretty much been following the Frozen account on tumbler(Google if curious). Speaking of tumblr, I found that someone posted a link to BEC story. Funny how the internet works.**

**Okay, suddenly remembered who I am writing to. Disney fan girling in the Yugioh universe. Somehow, I get the impression that would be an interesting combination. Or it would totally be completely crack humor. Who knows, seems like a toss-up.**

**Well, I better get on to my next story. You know this is probably my most popular story at the moment, though Princess of Egypt is giving it some serious competition.**

**Disclaimer: Empty sentence. Just move on.**

* * *

It certainly occurred to Mana the second time around riding dragons it's a lot easier to come down than it is to come up. At the very least, it's faster so the drop is both kind of terrifying and thrilling.

At the very least, Rebecca and Ryou both looked a little uneasy as the dragons landed to the ground. Bakura looked over at his twin in concern.

"Air sickness getting at you again?"

Ryou shook his head uneasily.

"No, that was just a rather quick descent."

The group removed itself from their respective dragons and congregated near the visible place where Mana assumed the tablet was being held. Once everyone was together, the dragons bowed their heads than raised them again, their sound in unison though not issuing attacks.

"ROAR!"

With that, the dragons disappeared once more into flashes of golden light which raced across the mid-day desert sky.

Atem was looking at the retreating light just as everyone else was with a puzzled expression.

"You know, I have to wonder where they are going."

A calm and unfamiliar voice to him answered behind the group.

"They are returning to their tablets now that their task has been complete."

That got the whole group to turn around to find the infamous Shadi standing there, looking as calm and placid as everyone else was surprised.

Though Marik's surprise later turned to scornful anger.

"You again!"

Bakura looked at the Egyptian teen in interest.

"You know each other?"

Marik didn't take his blazing eyes off Shadi who didn't seem at all affected by the outburst.

"Unfortunately."

Shadi gave a small sigh that was almost unnoticeable.

"Calm yourself Ishtar. Your sister invited me and it is not you I specifically came to talk to."

He gave a nod to Ishizu.

"Ishizu."

She nodded in response.

"Shadi, my apologies."

The man in the turban shook his head slightly, his blue eyes still vacant though focused.

"It is hardly to be expected, considering what happened last time. So the necklace is in the High Priest's hands?"

Odion nodded curtly.

"Unfortunately, yes."

"It cannot have been helped, I suppose."

Then Shadi's eyes found Mana's green ones, to which he acknowledged with a nod.

"I wish I could say it is good to meet you again my dear, but these circumstances are hardly good ones."

Everyone's heads turned to Mana who answered him.

"You knew that this would happen, didn't you?"

Shadi shrugged.

"Even if I had told you, would you have believed me? I can only warn to a extent, even I cannot directly meddle in certain events."

Marik was still glaring at Shadi.

"Like that day Ishizu and I met you in the market place?"

Shadi shot an irritated glance, breaking his composure slightly.

"In case you haven't noticed Tomb Keeper, we have bigger things to deal with."

Mahad spoke up then, with a thoughtful look on his face.

"So you're the Shadi, who ran into my sister at the bazaar while ago?"

He nodded in reply.

"Yes, I am Shadi, a servant of Anubis and the guardian of the Millennium Items. For three thousand years, I have kept track of the Items' movements from wielder to wielder. When the Eye was taken from Pegasus, I felt it just as I felt the Ring and the Necklace's captures."

His eyes found Bakura then, with an even more irritated look than the one he gave Marik.

"Though how the Thief King was reborn on our side, I will never know."

Everyone echoed with surprise.

"Thief King?"

Bakura narrowed his eyes at the man, gaining an incredible dislike for the man.

"You know what, that sounds like an insult."

"Well, I suppose I can't question the Goddess' choice. Follow me."

With that, Shadi turned towards the building and began to walk near the doorway.

The group turned to each other before following the man's actions, him talking as they went inside.

"I suppose you all know the basics of the legend of the Millennium Items?"

Seto Kaiba seemed to give a grunt of disbelief.

"Please, spare me the fairy tale nonsense."

That got Atem to glare at his rival.

"Kaiba, if you can't contribute, please shut up!"

Mahad nodded in agreement to Seto's noticeably red face before turning his attention back to Shadi as the group descended down the stone steps.

"Took the words out of my mouth. I actually would like to hear this, you were saying Shadi?"

Shadi's calm voice continued as they continued their trek into the dark down a long stretch of stairs.

"It all began with the forging of the Items. It was before the time of the Pharaoh and his priests, in the time of his father during a time of great war. All other options seemed exhausted and time was running out. Then the Priest Aknadin, brother to the Pharaoh, brought to attention a spell translated from the Millennium Spellbook."

Odion's eyes lit up in understanding.

"The book they found at the dig site!"

Solomon Muto and Arthur Hawkins perked up in interest, the former speaking their thoughts.

"That was what Pegasus' group found? The one protected by that salt acid trap?"

Shadi nodded, his blank blue eyes forward and never turning back.

"Yes, though it's discovery could not be blamed on Pegasus alone. As a wielder of the Millennium Eye, a portion of Aknadin's consciousness dwelt within it. Most likely it influenced his decisions and actions."

Seto did not seem surprised at all at the announcement while Mahad seemed to be fighting off some shudders.

"Okay, as interesting as the subject of possession is, you said something about Aknadin. You said he once served the Pharaoh?"

Rebecca piped up then.

"That explains why he was called Oathbreaker. He turned against his oaths and sided with Zorc. Altohgh, I didn't know he was his brother."

"Correct, though that wouldn't be for some time after these events. As a result of this event, he had to resign his royal title per his brother Aknamkamon's request. With the Pharaoh's approval, he set out the village of Kul Elna, a thieves' village with the inhabitants possessing powerful Kas. From these Kas, come the Shadow Creatures of Egypt which would later become the inspiration for Duel Monsters."

Professor Hawkin's face lit up as he banged his fist into his other hand.

"I knew it! Of course! It's so simple, the monsters that lie parallel to our world would have dealings with certain humans. If in fact, they are in fact their 'Kas' or own personal spirits, souls in fact, as you put it then….."

Rebecca cleared her throat as her grandfather came out of his conclusion with a sheepish expression, as he had stopped the whole group.

"Oh, my apologies! You were saying?"

Bakura seemed to have conquered enough of his irritation to ask a question.

"So what was Corpse Breath trying to do? Raise an army of Duel Monsters?"

Shadi did not seem so bothered by it as the group continued their descent, his voice not matching at all what he was saying.

"No. He placed all of his soldiers under a spell so they wouldn't be able to say anything as he ordered them to round all the villagers into a secret tunnel. There 99 souls; men, women, and children were thrown into the cauldron and melted down blood, bone, and flesh into the gold that would later be forged into the Items."

That caused the whole group to stop immediately as Shadi took a few more steps before stopping, still not looking at them.

Marik and Atem had both gotten their Items in their hands, looking at them like they had never seen their prized possessions before. Both of the older gentlemen looked horrified as their younger grandchildren. Mana subconsciously grabbed Mahad's hand as Odion and Ishizu shared a look. Seto Kaiba's composure dropped minutely as his eyes were moderately wide in surprise. Bakura's eyes were widened, but it was his brother that seemed the more horrified.

"All this time….we've been….."

Bakura came closer to his twin, comforting him with his embrace and storking his hair.

"It's alright Ryou. I wore it most of the time."

That didn't seem to calm Ryou down

"But I should have known! All that magic couldn't have just come from some golden Item. There had to have been some dark magic on it!"

Mana looked at Ryou, trying to think of what was best to say.

"Ryou, this was about three thousand years ago. You couldn't have changed what happened to them. I don't think you can fault yourself for having an Item you knew practically nothing about its origin."

Bakrua looked down to his brother.

"See?"

Atem seemed to be coming out of his new found horror, still looking over his Item in fascinated disgust.

"So you mean to say that this Pharaoh was desperate enough that he would sacrifice innocent lives to forge these…these…things?!"

Shadi turned to them and shrugged.

"One could argue about innocence, they were thieves. But the Pharaoh didn't know about the exact details of what the spell entailed."

Mana noted that Atem's face seemed calmed by that and decided to talk at that point.

"Let me guess, Aknadin kept that all to himself? The more I keep hearing about this guy, the more I'm reminded of that old story about the priest in that storybook you got me Mahad."

Shadi nodded in understanding.

"Yes, to my understanding a former Tomb Keeper was interviewed for that book, though some of the details were cut out. For example, the Goddess Ma'at was changed to a daughter, granted that could have happened by scant records and contradicting writers, but I digress. Akandin was not always evil, it was his resentment and ambitions that turned him to Zorc."

Ryou looked up, still noticeably clinging to his brohter.

"You said something about Bakura as a Thief King?"

"Yes, as fate would have it, one young boy survived the massacre he witnessed firsthand, who would later forge a pact with the Dark One for revenge."

Bakura's eyes glinted with some anger, his voice surprisingly bitter.

"Should have made sure the kid didn't get away. Survivors always come back for revenge. Classic plot for any good revenge movie."

Shadi continued down the steps with that, the others still following him and wondering when these stairs would ever end(okay only Mana and Atem were thinking that).

"Either way, the Thief King Bakura was Zorc's agent for a time before Aknadin joined the cause. Shortly after, he tried to betray Zorc, but paid with his life."

That got everyone to look at Bakura, who seemed slightly peeved at everyone looking at him.

"What?! I can have a moment I act nice! Though granted, this past self of mine must have been pretty twisted…."

Yugi nodded with understanding.

"That's why Aknadin wanted to hurt Ryou! It would have hurt you by extension."

Kaiba seemed to regian his regular senses as he scoffed.

"Past selves, seriously?"

Mahad turned to Kaiba, challenging him.

"Why not? Mana said he recognized her, and he's spoken to both me and Bakura familiarly and he seemed to recognize Atem. Also, he called Ishizu Isis. He obviously found us familiar. Why are you so defensive? It's not like you're a part of this."

Kaiba was about to retort that before Shadi interrupted.

"Oh, but he is."

That got everyone's attentions as they finally reached the bottom. Shadi strode into the underground chamber, bare except for the two tablets in front of the group who stills stayed at a distance.

"Atem Muto, Seto Kaiba, please examine this tablet. I feel that this will be something you must know."

Atem and Seto looked at each other with similar faces of confusion, but nonetheless stepped forward before finding their eyes go wide at the shock of their lives. The rest of the group followed and was just equally stunned.

There on the carved stone, was what seemed to be Seto Kaiba and Atem, surrounded by the pictures of the Millennium Items, summoning their signature monsters! Only Atem was dressed with a crown and robes while Seto looked like an ancient priest. Still, it couldn't be denied that the pharaoh was summoning the Dark Magician and Blue Eyes was above Kaiba.

Atem instinctly grabbed his puzzle as he saw it on his stone doppelganger, as all the others were stunned, Mana was flushing as she realized how similar it was to her dreams.

"This….is…"

Shadi went on starign at the tablet.

"One of the scenes of the Pharaoh facing off against his greatest opponent, the High Priest Seto, wielder of the Millennium Rod and a Sacred Guardian of the Royal Court."

For once in his life, Seto Kaiba seemed stunned to silence as Shadi addressed him.

"I know you have always detested any mention of magic or past lives, Seto Kaiba. But if you still have any doubts about it, take a look at the dragon above the High Priest's head."

That seemed to stir Kaiba as he began to walk away.

"This is insane!"

He was to be stopped by Shadi's voice, causing him to find Shadi's soul less gaze directed at him.

"Oh, but have you not always wondered about it? There are many powerful monsters in the game of Duel Monsters, yet you are so drawn to the Blue Eyes? Why are you so obsessed with it?"

Mahad commented then.

"And it is obsession."

That got Seto to turn his glare back to Mahad which was returned.

"Why you..?!"

Shadi gave an almost unnoticeable eyeroll.

"Well, it's nice to see some things never change. You two are still at each other's throats like Bast and Anubis."

That got the two to look back to Shadi, Mana was standing by her brother who began to speak.

"Wait, you mean…."

Shadi's eyes nodded as he addressed the brother and sister.

"Priest Mahad, wielder of the Millennium Ring, and the Apprentice Magician Mana; both extremely close to the Pharaoh Atem since he was a young Prince. Although, it is interesting that the two of you were reborn as siblings in this time. Your bond must have been strong enough to draw you together."

That got the two siblings to look at each other with skeptical look, at this sudden revelation.

Atem decided to speak up then.

"So, as the Pharaoh reincarnate, I'm….Aknadin's nephew, right?"

Ishizu nodded.

"Yes, and he will see us all as obstructing his attempts to gather the Items to resurrect Zorc."

Mahad turned to Ishizu and the other Ishtars at that.

"You knew about this for a while, hadn't you?"

Ishizu's eyes narrowed at the accusing tone.

"It was a guess, nothing more! We can discuss this later."

Yugi spoke up then.

"Actually, this Eighth Key that Weevil and Rex talked about has been bothering me."

Atem nodded in agreement with his twin.

"Yeah, what's the deal with that?"

Shadi, for once looked confused as he answered.

"I…don't know. None of the writings speak of an Eighth Key, only of the Millennium Items gathered and placed within the Millennium Stone."

Marik sighed.

"In that case, the only thing we can really do is keep the Items from Aknadin until we find some way to send his miserable excuse of an as…"

"MARIK!"

Marik cringed at the impacting head slap his sister had graciously given him.

"What! You always said it was important to tell the truth."

That didn't stop the diamond piercing gaze his sister was reproving him with.

"Alright, alright!"

Shadi turned back to the tablet

"Besides, the answer to this is right before us."

Bakura gave him a rather skeptical look.

"Oh, is the tablet full of some mystical power that can help us crush that risen mummy into dust?"

Shadi glanced upward at the tablet, pointing in the direction.

"It lies above us there."

Grandpa Muto and Professor Hawkins in particular focused on the strange three little monsters surrounding the stone Millennium Puzzle. The twin's grandfather was the first to speak.

"Those look like the stone tablets from the ruins."

Shadi nodded and continued.

"Yes, those are the Three Egyptian God Monsters. Obelisk the Tormentor, Slifer the Sky Dragon, and the Winged Dragon of Ra. These same three monsters was used to fight Zorc the last time, but if it's just Aknadin they could blast him to mere ashes in the Afterlife."

Atem's eyes widened in realization.

"So, if we find the God Cards….?"

"Yes, as long as Zorc has not risen, you will have a chance to defeat him."

Rebecca sighed.

"But we don't even know where these Egyptian God Cards are."

Marik smiled at that.

"What a coincidence, since we have them."

Yugi and Ryou looked to the Egyptian teen in surprise.

"Really?"

Ishizu nodded, a small smile on her face.

'When Pegasus created the God Cards, he found that there was power even as cards that he couldn't control. So he gave them to me on his last trip to Egypt, for safe keeping."

Odion spoke then.

"Of course, the three are not together just in case of theft."

Shadi turned back to face the group then.

"A good idea, but we cannot wait to act. Even now, Aknadin still searches. I will give him and his monsters a chase around Egypt, to give you the time you need, but know that even I can be conquered."

Atem nodded.

"I understand."

Shadi turned to Ishizu.

"Since you are no longer without an Item, you might want to consider getting out those 'things' from the tomb. And perhaps one for the Thief."

Ishizu's eyes broke calm yet she kept her composure.

"I understand."

Bakura didn't seem bothered that he had been called a thief, he just wanted this guy to leave soon. There was something about him that just really...irritated him.

"Very well. I wish you best of luck. May we meet again soon, my Pharaoh."

With that Shadi bowed his head to Atem and gradually vanished.

The whole group seemed to gasp as a whole at how the man left. Ryou seemed astonished.

"That's a neat trick. I wish I could have done that in PE class."

Mahad turned to Ishizu.

"So where do we start on this 'Egyptian God Card Collection'?"

"Back to Cairo, where the first God Card is."

* * *

**V.E.: I apologize at the lateness, but I did mention I was having trouble. I'm still not completely satisfied, but maybe that's just me as a perfectionist.**

**I started this chapter a while ago and as it turns out Princess of Egypt currently surpasses this story. Also, it feels like I was reaching my inner Tolkien when I was talking about the Millennium Items with Shadi. **

**Please review**


	23. Just Talking

**V.E.: I love this story don't get me wrong, but why is it that when I get along far enough into the story I want to do something else? Maybe that's a healthy sign. I'm pretty sure there are a bunch of writers that have ongoing projects at the same time. I sure hope that's the reason why Scott Lynch has been remiss in getting his Gentlemen Bastard series on paper.**

**Still, it's nice to know that I've managed to get as many chapters as I have done and for all the world to read(or at least the vase shippers of the fan fiction community). I like how I've managed to take a movie that's pretty well known and put my own twists in it. I have to think it's more Yugioh than the Egyptian movie franchise.**

**Ah well, time I better get this typed up. I remember the last time I procrastinated so much. Since my stories are usually on a cycle, the other stories won't get updated until this one is. And I know a lot of blueshippers would be very annoyed at waiting for the next update of Princess of Egypt.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Yugioh, I probably would have gone more into the background of Egypt before Atem's reign. Delving more into Aknamkamon and Aknadin's childhood up to the creation of the Millennium Items. Well, I still might write that story someday.**

* * *

_She breathed in and out, opening her eyes to find herself back into the tablet's chamber._

_She tried to repress a groan._

"_Not here again. Aren't I entitled to some nice normal dreams? You know, ones that have nothing to do with this supposed 'past life' of mine?"_

_A small chuckle resounded the room before a calm collected and wise voice spoke._

"_**I'm afraid not my dear."**_

_Mana felt her turn so suddenly, surprised at the intruder of her dreams._

_It was a tall, beautiful woman, clothed in such golden armor and wings, the headdress seemed like the head of the Winged Dragon of Ra. A white skirt and cloak seemed the same pallor of her skin, but Mana could not take her eyes off her face. It seemed like it came off a headdress of an Egyptian Queen._

_Mana finally spoke._

"_Who…are you?"_

_That simply made the woman laugh softly again._

"_**I am one who is nameless. Or at least for now I am. The question I am here to ask is; who are you?"**_

_Mana was puzzled by her question._

"_Who am I? I'm Mana Shen, a sixteen year old high school student who is best in science, art, and likes watching action romance movies."_

_That simply caused the pale goddess like woman to smile._

"_**Yes, you are all that. But you are also so much more than that."**_

_Mana gulped at eh very though, gesturing to the tablet._

"_You mean all this?"_

"_**Of course. You know Lady Mana, most girls would envy being in your positions. It's something that seems to have leapt off of those…what do you call those things they show talking pictures on again?"**_

_Mana felt a little surprised at how out of touch this woman was._

"_You mean movie screens?"_

_The golden white woman nodded in affirmation._

"_**Yes, that's it, movie screens."**_

_Mana shook her head furiously._

"_But I'm not like that! I'm not like my brother or Yugi who can translate, or Atem and Bakura who can fight! I'm just the girl getting dragged along for the ride."_

_This woman seemed to like laughing as she stopped and spoke again._

"_**Oh, and these dreams are nothing?"**_

_Mana's eyes went wide before she retorted._

"_Yeah, dreams of thousands of years ago. It's nothing that can help me now."_

_That got the woman to think deeply at that._

"_**I think that depends on the kind 'help' you're looking for."**_

_Mana's face flushed as a sudden flash of memory of a certain pharaoh appeared before her._

"_**You, Mahad, and Seto were quite close to him. But you are the only one who has been dreaming about it so frequently."**_

_Mana perked up in interest._

"_My brother and Kaiba have dreamed about this?! They've never…"_

"_**Mahad mostly dreams of how it used to be between the two of you, both past and present, but those dreams are less detailed than yours.**_

_A pang of guilt came up at that. _

"_He…does? But…"_

_The woman seemed to smile at Mana, not unkindly._

"_**Often times, people do not realize what they have until it is gone. Such is the case of Priest Seto."**_

_Mana felt her curiosity brighten at the words._

"_What does he dream about?"_

"_**He dreams of something precious lost, similar to Mahad, but not the same. A treasure prized for different reasons that his soul keeps searching for. Though you would never get him to admit that he dreams."**_

_Mana thought about it before groaning again._

"_But that doesn't tell me anything! Why can't these dreams tell me anything useful? Like what the God Cards are supposed to do or this Eighth Key that this Aknadin guy is searching for?"_

_That seemed to bring the woman out of her smiles and into seriousness. _

"_**Well, the mysteries of the God cards and their use are for the Pharaoh to discover. But the Eighth Key is what you need to know about."**_

_Mana's voice came out hurried. _

"_Do you know what is it? Please, if it can stop Zorc…"_

_The woman raised a pale hand, to stop the young brunette._

"_**I cannot say, even I am bound by the laws of the game."**_

"_Game?"_

_The almost smile returned to her face._

"_**But I can give you a hint. The Eighth Key is something you already know."**_

_Mana shook her head in disbelief._

"_But what is it?"_

"_**Having something and knowing what it means are two very different things. Surely you've realized that after today."**_

_Mana couldn't help, but recall the expressions of Atem and Marik's expression when they found out what created the golden Items._

"_**It is closer to you than you think. And I do not think Ma'at chose wrong when she sent those dreams to you. But Mana you must know, that none of these dreams are without a reason.**_

"_**Take care Mana and I hope you discover the answer soon."**_

_Mana raised her hand as if willing the dream to stop dissolving._

"_Wait, Ma'at? And what about…?"_

_But it was too late and the last thing Mana saw was the bittersweet smile the nameless woman favored her with._

* * *

Mana sat up in her bed, gasping as she tried to remember every little aspect of the dream she just had.

Her eyes roved over to the cot where her brother had been designated to sleep in their little 'stay' in the Tombkeepers' hideout(Seto Kaiab was the only one who didn't want to stay, he insisted on going back to his hotel for the night). She sighed and rolled her eyes, knowing Mahad was probably helping himself to the very large hoard of Egyptian writings Professor Hawkins and Muto had seen and her brother hadn't gotten to. Most likely, to do some reading on his past self.

The thought got Mana out of bed, with an eye roll. She went to the foot of her bed, getting her sketchbook out of her satchel. For a couple of moments, she just stared at it.

_I should have figured something was up when Ishizu wanted to talk about my sketches._

Ishizu had asked often about the sketches, what was behind each of them that looked Egyptian. The others had been mostly bypassed, although Ishizu's gaze had lingered over a picture of her parents and one of Mahad reading with glasses on.

Still, she got up and flipped through her sketchbook as she felt her feet take her out the door and into the small underground passageway. Through chariot races, high temples, and great creature; she paid them the full attention as she wandered through this place.

Why didn't she think about it earlier? How descriptive the dreams were, as if she had actually lived them before?

The pictures were so familiar to her and now she could out the names to the faces. The man in the robes and golden ring(which she realized now was the Millennium Ring) was Mahad. The blue clothed priest holding a golden instrument was undoubtedly Seto(though he'd probably deny it until kingdom come). The old short man in the purple hat that resembled Professor Muto.

The pages topped flipping as she came to the pharaoh with such crazy hair and golden crown and such intense purple red eyes stared back at her. She immediately snapped the book shut.

"Well, aren't you up late?"

Mana was started and turned around to find Atem Muto seated on a stone bench in his light blue pajamas, looking at her rather quizzically.

Mana looked away with a slightly reddened face.

"Couldn't sleep?"

Atem seemed to smirk at that.

"What? Having more dreams about me?"

Mana turned a furious glare(really regretting that Ishizu brought the drawings to everyone's attention on the way back, Professor Hawkins wanted to examine it in great detail) on Atem that made the smirk go away.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I'm just concerned that's all."

Mana sighed as she went down to sit by him, not really minding the ratty shorts and big T shirt that served as her night clothes.

"I just can't stop thinking about it."

Atem shook his head in agreement.

"Me too."

Mana looked at her companion with some disbelief.

"You now, for someone who just learned he's the reincarnation of an ancient pharaoh and his uncle from a past life is out to kill him, you're taking this rather calmly, don't you think?"

Atem spoke slowly, as if trying to put his thoughts together.

"I think it's because I don't know what to say to that really. Don't get me wrong I was freaking out earlier, but it's not like it's come from me out of the blue. I mean, I've always known me and Yugi were connected to Egypt. There was an inscription on the box of the Millennium Puzzle that stated the one who solved it would be the 'King of Games.' I just didn't realize what that fully meant."

Mana looked up at that.

"Speaking of your brother, did your grandfather or him find any records in the library of what exactly he did to those mummies?"

Atem shook his head 'no.'

"No, that's a complete mystery. I've wondering that myself."

Mana smiled.

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that you and I were best friends in Ancient Egypt."

"I don't."

Mana shot a rather surprised look at Atem before he went on slightly red in the face.

"I mean….back when we first met…you know before you slapped me and called me a pervert."

Mana shot him a rather frank look.

"Yes, I remember that."

"What I mean to say is….didn't you feel….like...you had seen me before?"

Mana unwillingly gripped her sketchbook.

Atem raised an eyebrow.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'."

Mana sighed and handed over her sketchbook.

"Here."

Atem took it, flipping through the pages. His face was neutral before morphing into dumbstruck.

"This is….incredible!"

Mana didn't even have the guts to look at him, after having her drawings a secret she felt a little bit violated showing them to others. But it seemed wrong to not let Atem see them.

"I've been having those dreams for months. Drawing...helps me put it together, I guess. I just wish it could tell us how to defeat Aknadin for good."

His eyes went soft.

"I know what you mean. I feel so…helpless. Ishizu and your brother seem to have a better understanding what's going on than I do."

She smiled at that.

"That's because those two have actually studied that part of history, unlike us who only have a faint idea. Speaking of which, did you happen to notice the way those two were looking at each other on the way back?"

Atem's voice gained some amusement.

"You mean, when they were fighting with each other about withholding information?"

"Yes, then. I've never seen my brother that free at talking to the opposite sex. Most time he chokes on his words."

Atem nodded, a smirk forming as he recalled a memory.

"I know. When Mai Valentine came to visit back when he still helped in the game shop, he practically bolted to the back. It wasn't until he realized that she and Joey were interested in each other that he could speak to her."

Mana laughed at that.

"One of Mahad's unusual quirks. He can talk normally to a very beautiful woman if the said individual is taken. Then again, he could have been talking normally with Ishizu from anger."

Another voice joined the night's conversation.

"So should I be worried at that?"

The two on the bench turned to find Marik and Bakura standing nearby, still in regular clothes.

Atem felt his eyebrow lift in disbelief.

"Shouldn't you guys have changed?"

Bakura just shrugged as Marik spoke again.

"I'm just wondering whether I should sharpen my dagger."

Mana sent him a look before melting the seriousness.

"I would appreciate it if you didn't. Besides, Mahad is too much a chicken to really go out with a someone. Especially a really attractive one like your sister."

Bakura pointed his thumb to Marik.

"That's what I've been trying to tell him. See?"

Mana shook her head at Bakura.

"So, how is the 'Thief King' taking in today's events?"

Bakura thought for only a moment before answering.

"Truthfully, I feel honored."

Atem's voice matched his expression, joking.

"Yeah, you were destined to steal things."

Bakura took this in with amusement.

"Technically it's only stealing if no one wants it. By the way, if we found your past self's tomb, you think I could _borrow_ some stuff? It is, after all, _yours_."

Atem didn't seem amused.

"No. It is, after all, MINE."

Mana turned to Marik's direction.

"So how do you know Shadi anyway, Marik?"

The mention of the wandering spirit made Marik's hand grip the Millennium Rod at his belt.

"Let's just say it's a long story I'd rather not talk about. EVER."

Bakura shot the Egyptian an evil look.

"If ever the chance comes up, do you think…?"

Marik's smirk of mischief matched his.

"Sounds good."

Atem's eyes darted back between the two.

"Well, you two became friends quickly."

Mana looked concerned at this development.

"Even being able to read each other's thoughts."

The two shrugged in unison, Bakura stating their thoughts.

"What can I say? It's so hard to find someone with an appreciation for chaos like mine."

Mana shook her head and got up.

"Well, I think I better get back before my brother does from the library and has a panic attack. I want to wait up for him anyway."

Marik nodded.

"Well, Ishizu and Odion should be back in the morning with one of the cards."

Mana nodded and turned to exit

"Alright well, good night then."

Atem held up her sketchbook.

"Don't you want this back?"

Mana kept walking, a smile no one could see on her face.

"You can give it back to me in the morning when you've looked through it all. Good night Atem."

Atem continued staring after her until she was out of sight and Bakura smirked at that.

"Well, I never thought I'd see the day you'd trail after a girl, like your little panda bear brother over Tea. If that isn't obsessive crush, than I don't know what is."

Atem shot a very virile glare.

"Shut up!"

That didn't phase Bakura.

"Are you kidding? I have the immediate urge to call Taylor and Wheeler the news! What's the time difference between Egypt and Japan again?"

"SHUT UP!"

"And I thought Kaiba was stubborn! Do you want to wake the rest of the dead mummies in Egypt with your noise? Cause I think we've got enought problems with the one's that already risen."

Marik simply smirked in amusement as Atem proceeded to punch the white haired boy's nose.

"Ouch! HEY!"

* * *

**V.E.: I feel cheating. Still, I'm just trying to get this done. I prefer that chapter about them setting off the adventure. That past sequence, I think was one of my best.**

**I couldn't' anything better for the title.**

**REVIEW!**


	24. Siblings Together

**V.E.: Hello my adoring readers! Yes I know, I must be crazy that I've started two new stories in separate fandoms, but you have to go where the writer's muse takes you.**

**First things first. To anyone who has read Ask/Torture the Yugioh Cast, knows that I am heading out to college later this month. As a result, any updates to all my stories will take longer.**

**In response to the question asked last chapter, no the eighth key is NOT Atem's name. That would be too easy. But I meant what I wrote, we already know the key. We just don't know it is the key. Aren't I Evil? XD**

**Disclaimer: If I did, I would make Marik, Seto, and Atem strip for girls and my own profit. I'd be doing the whole world a favor.**

* * *

Mahad groaned as he felt his head hit the small desk he had cornered on the Tomb Keeper's library, surrounded by a sea of scrolls. His father's words echoed through his head as he raised his head back up to look at all the things he choose to study.

"_Did you pick out all of those?! Listen Mahad, I don't doubt that you're smart enough to handle this stuff, but there is such a thing as overreaching yourself. If you try to swallow everything at once, you miss the most important part of learning something. Plus, you earn nothing more than a massive headache."_

Mahad pinched the bridge of his nose, a habit of his whenever he had a headache.

_I really should learn to follow that advice._

He sighed as he leaned back into his chair, his navy eyes rimmed with the red of sleeplessness. He should probably put everything back or at the very least head back to his room to turn in, but if he did Mahad knew that Mana would probably be up waiting for him.

Two weeks ago, he would have been thrilled that Mana was listening and wanting to talk to him. Now it just filled him with apprehension.

Of course two weeks ago, he had also been looking forward to getting to Egypt and his hands dirty with the excavation. What a reality check this was, of course there was nothing normal and real about it. He had been threatened with a knife(twice), rode a camel, saw a raised mummy, grappled with other mummies, and had almost been torn apart by Duel Monsters.

Yes, it was just the kind of quiet and learning experience he had always dreamed of.

Suddenly, a thought took on Mana's voice.

"_You were asking for though, weren't you 'Mr. Indiana Jones'? You should have become a history teacher for high school, not an archaeologist."_

Mahad frowned as he gave himself a small smack in the back of the head. It was a never good time when his conscious sounded like his sister The last time had been when he had _'experimented' _with alcohol in college.

_And look how well that turned out. _

He took a deep breath and focused back on the scroll he had been previously reading.

He had to give it to the shadow like clan, most of their records were practically flawless. Preserved in the most careful way, there had been little damage so Mahad had been able to read them without trouble.

After seeing Shadi and the tablet, he knew he had to read more up on the Nameless Pharaoh and the war with Aknadin in the past. And about his supposed past self.

Eventually, he had found the scroll that seemed to be like a personal record of the royal court before and during the war.

Specifically, the writing of his death and merging with the Dark Magician had caught his attention.

Dark Magician. He could remember the first day he saw the purple robed magician when Atem and Yugi decided to show him all the monsters in his deck(as he was not a duelist, it was no problem). Even then, he felt such a feeling of déjà vu. Seeing the monster in duels had only strengthened it.

And he could also remember when he saw the Dark Magician Girl. Yugi's words to Mana came back to him from the ruins.

_"But it's weird, she looks like you as a blonde."_

"You're up late again."

Mahad cringed as he turned around. Speak of the devil, and she will appear.

He hurriedly turned back to his work.

"Surprised?"

His little sister slowly made her way over to the desk.

"Not really. I still remember Dad scolding you about that."

Mahad gave a weak smile.

"Yeah. 'My worst quality'."

Mana stopped eventually and sat herself on the desk.

"I was waiting for you."

"You should have gone to sleep."

Mana shrugged.

"Couldn't sleep at. Eventually, I just decided to find you here."

"Why?"

Mana shot her brother a frank look.

"You know why."

For a couple of minutes, silence reigned in the library. Then Mahad sighed.

"I wish you weren't involved in all this."

Mana's look didn't change.

"Seriously?"

"Mana, I almost got torn apart by Harpies!"

"EXACTLY!"

Mahad was taken aback by Mana's volume. Her face changed to hurt and worried, an expression that reminded him too much of the funeral.

"Do you have any idea what I felt when I saw that? I was scared out of my mind!"

Mahad felt his eyes soften.

"Mana…."

"I may not fully understand what Aknadin has done or Atem's past life's history with him, but I know that the both of us are involved whether we like it or not."

Mahad sighed.

"Mana, I…."

Mana sighed before going quiet. After a few tentative minutes, she broke the silence.

"I was scared, you know. It was like I had seen it happen before."

Mahad shot her a look before she amended.

"Not the 'torn by Harpies' part, I mean being helpless to save you. Maybe I did see it before in that 'past life' of mine. All this time, I feel helpless. I can't really do anything with this. I mean, Bakura and Atem can fight, you and Yugi can translate….I'm just someone who got dragged along because you're my brother. I just hate the idea that I really can't do anything."

Mahad didn't know what he was doing first, but he gathered up his courage and hugged his sister. Her green eyes went wide at it, but slowly she began to return it.

He felt the need to tighten the grip, but he didn't do it.

"I'm sorry Mana. Sorry for everything, this is all my fault."

His sister shot him an even look.

"Everything? Last time I checked, it was Pegasus who raised the mummy and said corpse was the one who told the harpies to kill you and your girlfriend."

Mahad's eyes narrowed, a tinge of red on his cheeks.

"Ishizu Ishtar is not my girlfriend."

She rolled her eyes in a joking manner.

"Sure, keep telling yourself that."

"I meant about before this trip. About moving and switching schools."

Mana considered that.

"You know with this whole crazy trip, I haven't had as much time to resent you for that."

That put a small smile on his face, somewhat glad that Mana wasn't trying to remove herself from the hug.

"Well, that's good to know."

She shrugged.

"Besides, it wasn't all bad. I would never have met Kisara if I never moved in with you."

"You made friends with her pretty quick, you know. Like the two of you were practically sisters. I was relived when you first introduced us, especially since it's so hard for you to make friends usually."

Mana got a strangely pensive look on her face when he said that.

"Yeah, I guess so."

The older heard the change in the younger and pulled back from the hug.

"Is something wrong?"

Mana shook her head with a sigh.

"Just dreams."

That reminded the brother of earlier thoughts.

"By the way, am I ever going to see those dream drawings of yours?"

Mana gave a small smile at that.

"You'll have to get in line, I just gave it to Atem to look at it."

Mahad felt a twitch of an urge at the mention of the duelist and Pharaoh reincarnate. It wasn't the fact that he disliked Atem, hell he considered him like a younger brother! They had been particularly close back when he worked in the shop. The fact that their past selves were best friends was one more thing.

But the idea of his sister and Atem _alone _together, coupled with some of the texts he had been reading that seemed to imply a deeper relationship between the Pharaoh and Mana's past life, was rubbing him the wrong way.

Before this trip was over, he was probably going to have to give the talk that every brother with a sister had to do. The 'Threaten the Idiot that thinks He's in love with my Sister' talk.

Mana seemed to pick up on the change in his thoughts.

"Alright, what are you thinking?"

Mahad shook his head, trying not to let the sour thoughts show.

"It's nothing, really."

Mana didn't look like she believed that, but she let it go.

"So, have you found anything in the records about this 'Eighth Key'?"

Mahad felt a smile creep across his face as his hand brought a small scroll to her attention.

"As a matter of fact, I may have found something."

Mana's full attention was engaged as she tried to look at the scroll better. It looked like a strange stone tablet of a pharaoh with all the Millennium Items scattered throughout it. At the bottom, there seemed to be hieratic writing, but it was smudged and tears so the full message was unreadable.

"What is this?"

"It's the Millennium Stone, apparently."

Mana turned to her brother for conformation.

"Isn't that one of the things that Aknadin is looking for? To put the Millennium Items in?"

Mahad nodded, holding up a much newer looking paper for Mana to see.

"One of many things. This bottom writing is so damaged I could only make out a couple of things. Take a look, I tried to make it as modern sounding as I could."

Emerald green eyes scanned what seemed to be gibberish.

_Seven Golden Instruments placed…not enough. Eighth piece neede…to seal or resurrect…The unknown power that is known….sacrificed for the ritual…_

Mana's eyes were confused.

"The unknown power that is known? That makes no sense."

Mahad sighed, once more pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I think it's like the saying 'hiding in plain sight'. As for the rest, I couldn't really make sense other than the fact that this 'Key' is needed."

Mana's mind flashed back to her dream for a moment, but she wouldn't think on that for now.

"Well, maybe we should get some sleep so we can 'look at it with a fresh mind later'."

Mahad sighed with a small smile, getting up as he pushed his notes into his satchel.

"Alright, but don't quote any more of Dad's lines at me."

"Hey, who do you think I got my 'happy, go lucky and with the flow' attitude?"

Mahad felt his eyebrow raise.

"The one I used to get annoyed with?"

" 'Family is supposed to annoy you. It's when you're not fighting there's a problem'."

"What did I just say about that?"

* * *

Mana felt her eyebrow raise as she saw one person she didn't expect to find back at the Tomb Keepers' hideout. Everyone else was no problem, the Muto siblings were together with their grandfather, Ryou and Rebecca were talking about some tournament, Bakura and Marik were cracking identical evil grins(she had a sudden urge to check her valuables), Mahad was taking over his findings in the library with his old professor.

"What are you doing here?"

Seto Kaiba merely shot her an annoyed glare.

"None of your business. Turban creep."

Marik perked up at that.

"Yeah, Shadi really gives off the impression."

Ishizu's smile was mysterious as she entered with Odion.

"It seems to me Mr. Kaiba, there was a lot more truth you found in that talk yesterday than you care to admit."

Kaiba's glare turned on the Egyptian woman.

"That is none of your business, Miss Ishtar. I just like keeping an eye on my rivals."

Marik looked over his siblings.

"Did you have any trouble getting it?"

Odion held up the card as Ishizu smiled. The giant like man walked over to Atem.

"None at all. This is Slifer the Sky Dragon."

Atem took the card reverently, holding the divine red monster up. His fingers seemed to be caressing it, sensing the power within the disguise of paper.

"It's…amazing."

Rebecca's eyebrow was raised.

"I still have a hard time believing that that monster is real."

Arthur Hawkins nodded.

"Yes, from what I know about these Egyptian God Cards, they were actually monsters in the patron of their god. They were quite larger than the pictures on the cards."

Solomon Muto was trying to look over his taller grandson's shoulder to get a peek.

"Can I see it?"

Yugi looked at his grandfather with a smile.

"Let's wait to examine it until after this whole mummy mess is all over."

Seto spared a look at that card.

"I'd like to see that in a duel, but squirt's got a point."

Immediately, that set Atem off with an intimidating glare.

"Excuse me?! Do I call your brother a midget?"

Leaving the two to glare at each other with all their hatred, Mahad addressed Ishizu.

"That's one down. You said there were three, where are the other two?"

Ishizu answered in her regular calm.

"One is in a bank in Luxor, but the other is in a tomb which is in the Valley of the Kings. We'll got there first, besides there are a couple of other things we might want to pick up there as well."

Mahad seemed very interested in that, but Ishizu didn't look forthcoming with that information.

Ryou sighed.

"I'm not looking forward to going out in the hot desert again. And sun burn is the least of the problems."

Bakura shrugged at that, a mischievous smile spreading across his face.

"Think of this way little brother, we'll certainly have a very interesting story to tell everyone about what we did this summer."

Ryou didn't look convinced as he suddenly thought of something.

"Oh my gods…what are we going to tell Dad when this is all over? I haven't given a call since we came to Egypt."

Bakura's smile simply grew.

"We tell him what we always do, I got into an unfortunate adventure I couldn't resist and I dragged you along with me."

Odion's tone was brisk.

"I suggest we leave now. With the High priest, we have no idea how long Shadi will last against him?"

Ishizu nodded and turned to her brother.

"Do you think you could summon Felgrand Dragon again to get us there?"

Marik held up the card with a smirk.

"You bet. Hey Pharaoh, think you and Yugi can give me a hand?"

Atem and Yugi nodded in unison.

"You bet!"

Mahad sighed.

"Well, I suppose there are worse ways to get to a tomb then flying."

Seto only stayed silent, as if lost in thought. Or maybe he was just sulking like he usually did. As Mana observed that, her mind suddenly dinged and a question unfolded.

_Am I forgetting something? Or someone?_

* * *

**V.E.: Well I suppose this is good enough.**

**PLEASE REVIEW!**


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